Final Flight
by Rohan
Summary: The G- boys and several new characters face a new threat, this time from the inside.
1. Default Chapter

Disclaimer-I do NOT own Gundam Wing, though, like so many others, I wish I did

Disclaimer-I do NOT own Gundam Wing, though, like so many others, I wish I did.

Final Flight

Chapter One

Setting: Five Years after Endless Waltz.

Location: In orbit above Southeast Asia.

All you could see from Earth was a number of colored flashes. What it truly was happened to be five people fighting for their lives. An unspecified number of gundamium mobile dolls had appeared and gathered to attack. All the Gundam pilots were now preventers, and were gathered at the Preventer H.Q. for due updates to their Gundams. Heero Yuy, pilot of the gundam Wing Zero. Duo Maxwell, pilot of the Deathscythe Hell. Trowa Barton, pilot of the Heavyarms. Quatre Raberba Winner, pilot of the Sandrock, And Chang Wufei, pilot of the Altron. They were also the most effective team against the remnants of OZ and the Romefeller foundation.

"We can't keep this up!" Exclaimed a frazzled Duo, even as his beam scythe raked in a short arc and claimed yet another doll.

"We have to! Whoever made these still has the capability to make more!" Quatre gasped, as he removed his left heat shotel from a former doll.

"We do NOT give up! We fight with HONOR!" Shouted Wufei, as his trident lanced through three more suits. He was absolutely infuriated that someone would dare to send dolls to earth again.

Another squadron of suits appeared and was destroyed by a volley of missiles from Heavyarms.

__

'Whoever programmed these things wasn't very skilled.' Trowa thought as he rained bullets on another doll, somewhat puzzled.

__

'They sure did make a lot of them, though.'

Wing Zero was alternating between short blasts from its beam gating and brutal charges with its twin beam sabers, both were fatal to anything that happened to be in the way. Heero was a machine during battle, and destruction to any threat to himself or his comrades.

" If we don't finish them off soon, we are going to start to lose power." Came a monotone voice from Heavyarms. "I don't have much ammunition left."

"Group them into a small area. I can get most of them." Came the first vocalization in twenty minutes from Wing Zero.

The rest of the pilots began to attack, slowly, then with increasing ferocity. Any doll that came too close met its demise in an emerald streak from a thermal weapon, a superheated slash from sandrock, or a flame burst from Altron. Yells and battle cries from all of the pilots assaulted the com. They were no longer pilots of mobile suits. They were titans, destroying the threat to peace that had dared to converge above earth. 

Finally, after another half hour, four of the Gundam Pilots kicked in their reverse thrusters, and, as the rest of the gundams rocketed away from the immediate battle, the rest of the suits were incinerated by a gargantuan beam that was issued from Zero's buster rifle.

"Gee, that was fun." Panted an exhausted Duo. "Let's never, EVER do it again."

An uneasy laughter broke out from four of the five pilots.

The five tired, battered gundams slowly made their way back to preventer H.Q. for a well-earned rest. Upon their arrival at H.Q., they were greeted by the technicians and the rest of the preventers, Which were; Sally Po, the medic, Lucrezia Noin, military strategist, Zechs Marquise, emergency backup, And Lady Une, director of the Preventers. 

Lady Une was the first to speak. "Report." 

"Mission accomplished. A total of fifty-four mobile dolls destroyed. As suspected, they were constructed of Gundamium. No serious injury sustained, Dr. Po. Just bruises received from the restraining harness."

"Very good, Mr. Yuy. And the status of your gundams?"

"All sustained minor damage, but nothing serious. Refueling and a tune up should be sufficient." Heero stated.

"Good. You are off duty until further notice. The technicians will take care of your gundams. Get some rest."

The five went their separate ways, Heero, as always, would let no one touch his gundam, and would not sleep until repairs were completed. No one wanted to know what he would do if someone DID touch his gundam.

******** 

Duo was much less tense, and retreated to his quarters. He had just finished his shower and gotten dressed when there was a knock on the door.

__

' Who the hell could that be?' 

He crossed the distance from his room to the door. As he pulled it open, He saw a flash of black hair and was knocked backwards. He looked down at the girl that was now latched to him.

"HILDE!?" He laughed as he returned the embrace.

" What on EARTH are you doing here?!"

"What, can't I visit?" She chuckled as she hugged him tighter.

"You scared the living hell out of me!"

"What? Why? You know the God of Death never fails!" He said as he grinned wolfishly, earning a smack on the arm.

Hilde stood back and ran her gaze appreciatively over the man who called himself Death. He looked none the worse for his mission, though he looked a little worn out. He had some bruises on his arm, and one on his forehead. When she had seen the coverage of the battle in space, she'd rushed to preventer H.Q. to make sure he wasn't hurt.

" You look just as good as the day you left. Oh, yeah, I've got my own quarters here, too. Now at least if you DO come back injured, there'll be more than one person to call you an idiot."

" Ha ha. Very funny. I don't suppose you'd care to come in?" he said, with an over elaborate sweeping gesture toward his quarters.

"Don't mind if I do." she said breezily and strolled into his living room. 

He watched her walk in, and gave himself a mental wink, then walked slowly in after her.

********

Wufei stood in the Med Lab, Waiting patiently for Sally to arrive.

__

'This is not smart. You know how you feel about her. What will you do when you're alone with her?'

'Shut up. I can control myself.'

'You had better hope so. Because if you can't, you are going to be in a VERY compromising situation. And that is the last thing you want.'

'I said SHUT UP.'

"Well, Wufei, let's see what the dolls have done to you." Said Sally, interrupting his thoughts.

"Hmph. Took you long enough, woman. I might as well have gone to bed. The bleeding has already stopped."

"Oh, be quiet, and let me look at that gash." She said, walking past him to open the medical cabinet for antiseptic and bandages, while he peeled off his shirt.

"Oh, my. How exactly did you get that?"

" In battle. You ask some stupid questions, woman."

"And you give some stupid answers. I was asking how you got the gash, not where." 

He gave in. "One of the screens in the cockpit broke, and a glass shard flew up and slashed me."

"Ouch. Well, at least now I know to check for glass." she said as she flushed the cut with sterile water. She then soaked it in the antiseptic, and though she knew it hurt, the only reaction Wufei would give to show it was a bare tightening around his mouth.

__

'Stoic as always. He would never let himself show pain, especially in front of a woman.'

She finished bandaging him up, and he went off to bed. She figured she had better do the same, and, after cleaning up her mess, set off for her quarters.

********

__

'What the hell is wrong with you?! What is it about that onna?' Wufei silently interrogated himself as he stalked back to his quarters. When she had touched his bare chest, he had had barely enough time to bring his heart rate under control and put out the kindling flame in his nether region before he suffered a fairly serious loss of pride. He had been berating himself about it for ten minutes, and though his mind could not think of an answer, his heart already had.

__

'You're in love with her. Admit it.'

__

' No. I will not allow myself to fall in love with her. The gift of my love is a curse.'

His thoughts drifted back to the one woman he had possessed the courage to bestow his love upon, the woman who had died in his arms. With that exception, women were weak. As he laid down and tried to sleep, his mind told him that was a lie. And his heart said there was at least one woman to add to his list.

__

'Damn.' was his last conscious thought before he drifted off to sleep.

********

While Duo and Hilde caught up on old times, and the rest of the pilots slept, Heero was making small adjustments to his computer system in the cockpit, trying to increase the efficiency of the Zero System.

__

' If those dolls were any indication, the enemy has other tricks up its sleeve. Whoever the hell they are.' 

His lip twitched a little, betraying his irritation, before he consciously brought it under control again.

He was getting tired of not knowing things. They had just barely found out about those damned mobile dolls before they attacked, and had managed to prevent another massacre. Their enemy obviously knew quite a bit about them, and that was unsettling in the highest degree to the perfect soldier. He knew absolutely nothing about them, and that just heightened his annoyance. He would have to try to find something through their database, Avalon. If there was anything to find, that thing could find it. It monitored all colonies, and their activities, not to mention the moon base and Earth. He should know. He designed it himself. The enemy always seemed to be at least on step ahead of them, and he was going to turn that around. They were always unprepared, and that increased their chances of loss or destruction. 

He completed the last of the adjustments and headed to his living quarters, knowing there was no more to be done with his mind in such a sleep impaired state, and his body exhausted. But tomorrow, he would be busy. _Very_ busy.

Heero sat in his quarters the next morning, silently staring at his laptop screen while he typed, periodically pausing to read what he had brought up. He was still irritated, though now at least he was doing something to relieve his frustration. He could not stand doing nothing, and was almost as skilled a spy and computer hacker as he was a soldier. He had assigned himself to gathering intelligence while he was not in battle.

"Heero? You in here? Ah, there you are."

__

'Great. Can't he ever sleep in? It's eight A.M.'

"Heero? Can you hear me? What's so interesting, anyway?" asked Duo, who was beginning to wonder whether Heero HAD gone deaf, looking at his computer screen over Heero's shoulder.

"What the hell is that?" He said, staring at an image from an asteroid base security camera.

"You planning something? HEY! What was THAT?!" exclaimed Duo, looking at a brief shot of one of the mobile dolls they had fought the previous day.

"Where did you FIND this?!

"If you had bothered to look, you'd have found it." Said an annoyed Heero, wondering how Duo had managed to get into a locked room without him noticing. He'd have to replace the lock, and see if he could open it THEN.

Duo gave him a sidelong look, indicating that Duo knew something Heero would more than likely rather go on not knowing, and waited for Heero to say something.

Heero decided to tempt fate and ask.

"What is it, Duo?' He asked, his voice not betraying his exasperation.

"About time. Relena's here. Why don't you go say hi?" suggested Duo, with a demonic grin plastered on his face.

Heero's eyes narrowed. He was seriously considering strangling the other pilot with his own braid. Before he could give in to his temptations, he shut down and closed the laptop, got up and left Duo behind. He began calculating where in this compound Relena would be. Since she had no official business here, and she didn't, or he would have heard about it, she would not be monitored as closely, and was not expected to be anywhere in particular. That would rule out the conference room, and she certainly didn't have any business in the Med Lab. She would not be in the hangar…….wait a minute. She would be looking for him. She had no official business here, and therefore, it must be personal. He was not ignorant of her feelings toward him, and while he would not admit it to anyone, including himself, he felt something, and had no idea what it was, for her, too. Where would she expect to find HIM?………… With his gundam, of course. He gave himself a small smile, the kind he gave himself when he was sure no one was anywhere near him, and headed for the suit hangar.

As Heero walked slowly into the suit hangar, he caught a glimpse of blond hair up on the scaffolding they used to get up and repair, clean, and update the gundams with the latest technology. All of the pilots had undergone extensive training, and all five, plus Zechs, AKA Milliardo Peacecraft, were now proficient in the use of the Zero System, making them an even more formidable team than they were before. Heero had secretly been updating his personal system, and the system was now almost twice as powerful as the original. This version was unknown to the others, and the older version was installed in the other four gundams. Once he mastered it, he would know it was possible to do so, and would introduce the other four pilots to the new system, and they would begin the training sessions he had designed to render them with reaction time almost double that of what it was now. The current system was already enough to take on any doll, but this new version would allow them to take on to take on roughly fifteen suits each, at any given time. 

His thoughts wandered back to what he came here for, when he realized that he really had no idea WHY he came there. Duo had told him Relena was here, and the only thing on his mind was to go see her. That was unsettling, not knowing why he was doing something. He had always had a reason for doing everything, whether it was his own or not. 

After a moment of thought, he decided to go up to his gundam and rework some of the modifications he had made. On his way up, he caught another glimpse of Relena.

'_Called it.'_ He thought as he remembered his earlier reasoning. There was no way she would voluntarily be in a large room filled with the most advanced weapons of war unless he was somehow involved. As the lift stopped, he got off and headed toward the suits. He walked slowly, and looked around. He couldn't see her anymore……. Wait a second. The cockpit to Wing Zero was open.

__

'Why the hell would she be in a mobile suit?'

Maybe she was trying to surprise him? If she was, she had done a good job. He was surprised, and that was not an easy thing to make him feel. That was an odd feeling, and he wasn't so sure he liked it. He kept walking, and Relena, as he suspected, was inside Wing Zero, though she obviously hadn't seen him. She was still facing the inside of the cockpit.

"What the hell are you doing?"

Relena started, and whirled to face him. She looked like she thought he might shoot her for going anywhere near his gundam.

"I…I…just wanted to see the place everyone says you spend so much of your time."

Heero's eyes narrowed. He had a pretty good idea who had given her that little piece of information. He'd have to do something a little more drastic than telling that blabbermouth to keep his damn mouth shut.

"What brings you to preventer H.Q.?" he asked, lightening his expression a little. He really had no idea why she would be here. She had more self-control than to come here for the express purpose of seeing him. She would at least have thought of an excuse.

As she relaxed a little, she seemed to try to collect herself. Then she straightened, and took a couple of deep breaths.

__

'I'm not going to like this. This either an excuse, or it's a legitimate reason to be here, and I'm not going to like it either way.'

"As part of the preventer program, I'm going to be personally overseeing all future missions as part of the peacekeeping effort on the behalf of the Sank Kingdom."

"………….." Heero was absolutely speechless. There was no way she was doing this to him. He had a hard enough time trying to get here out of his mind with only her occasional visits and such. Now she was going to be overseeing every mission? That meant she would have to have her own quarters, which she had no doubt already arranged, and he would be seeing her every day? He did not know how to deal with this. In the first place, he had no idea why the leader of a major kingdom, much less a PACIFIST major kingdom, would be interested in a war machine and a killer, possibly excepting the interest in lynching him, and in the second place, there was nothing he could do about it.

"Heero? What do you think?" she asked, a mischievous sparkle in her eye, which Heero of course did not miss.

"…………." This was definitely not something he had planned for. A legitimate reason that WAS an excuse. There was more to her than met the eye, and he would admire her tact later, though right then that feeling was overwhelmed by extreme distaste for his situation. He would not have objected to her living this close to him in any other situation, but he thought about her enough when she WASN'T living, he could probably expect, what with all the other thought she put into this, a maximum of a hundred feet away from his quarters. 

" If you're going to be here, you have to understand something. This place could be attacked or bombed any minute. You are going to have to be prepared. Now let me ask you something. Do you want me to teach you?"

"Teach me what?" Relena asked, with a wrinkling of her brow.

"How to handle yourself. In case one of us isn't here to protect you."

Relena grinned at the prospect of Heero spending his free time teaching her what was taught to him, and pounded into his instincts, no doubt, at a very early age.

"Okay, Heero." She said. "When do we begin?"

"Tomorrow morning. Seven A.M. Meet me at the gym. Dress for a workout. Now, where are your quarters?"

"Right down the hall from yours." Relena answered, obviously very proud of herself.

__

'I thought so.'

"Now, are your things unpacked, or would you rather watch me work on Zero's circuitry?"

"I think I'll go unpack. I just got here this morning."

"I know."

"How?"

"Maxwell."

"I thought so."

Relena began to walk off, and when she got to the lift, she turned back and called out,

"See you in the morning!"

Heero shook his head and sighed. He wondered what he had just gotten himself into.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

__

The next morning, 6:45.

Heero thought about his actions the previous day as he took out his frustrations on a punching bag, one of the five that the gym contained.

'Why exactly did I do that?' he questioned himself, as his assault on the punching bag became even more heated. The room was resounding with a loud, though dull, thud, at least once every half-second as his hurtling fists and vicious kicks contacted the equipment_. 'I should be able to control myself. Whenever she is around, my mind slows. What. Is. Wrong. With. ME!?'_

This last thought was accompanied by a crushing kick that struck the bag with a sound like thunder, splitting it wide open. Heero silently watched the light, densely packed powdery substance pour onto the floor. He wondered with vague interest what exactly that substance was as it piled on the gym mat.

Little did Heero know that Relena had been watching his display for ten minutes, mesmerized. No move was made that would have made him vulnerable. She had been watching, and he had thrown, at one point, FIVE punches in ONE second. Then came the kick that would probably have turned a brick wall into powder, and the punching bag had been _slammed open._ She didn't even think that was _possible._ And he was going to be teaching her this? She didn't care HOW much he taught her, there was no way she'd ever be able to do THAT.

Heero picked up on her presence right then." How long have you been there?" he calmly questioned her.

"Long enough to watch you turn that into a sand pile." Relena answered, with a hint of awe in her voice.

Heero glanced back at the ruined remains of the former piece of equipment, and a small smile crept over his features.

Relena was taken aback at that. Heero? Smiling? Those were two words she never thought she'd hear in the same sentence. And what was he smiling at? The deceased punching bag?

"Well, should we get started? How do we begin?"

"We begin with basic fighting techniques. I know you're a pacifist, but there are people who will convert you to lunchmeat if you don't fight back. Self-defense is not aggression, simply self-preservation. Now, do you wish to learn, or not?"

"Yes." Relena stated confidently.

"All right. For the first few lessons, you can wear these padded mitts. They will protect your hands from the pain of an improperly thrown punch. Put them on." Heero helped Relena into the black gloves, tying them quickly. "Now. Contrary to anything you may have heard, fighting stances are blatantly unnecessary except in tournament fighting. Stances will give away what you are about to do to the enemy. Certain stances suggest certain attacks and defenses favored by that stance. No stance will lure your enemy into believing that you either do not know how to fight, or are not ready to fight. Understand?"

"Yes. I think so." Relena was frankly surprised that Heero would be such an apt teacher. He had just said more at once than almost every other time she had ever heard him say anything COMBINED. And she was enjoying the sound of his voice very much. 

"Now. When you throw a punch, there should be no backswing. The punch will be faster, and more unexpected by the enemy. Speed is a critical factor in fighting, and can only be increased with practice. Which I will give you. When the punch is thrown, your hand should not be in a tight fist. It should be in a loose fist until you are about six inches from the target. When you get to that point, tighten your fist. The strain on your hand will be significantly decreased, and the power behind the strike will be greater."

Relena was taking all of this in, thinking '_Who taught him this? And at what age?'_

"Now. Let's begin the actual training. This is a right jab." He demonstrated in slow motion, stretching his right arm in front of him, curling it into a fist at right about the time it would connect. 

"Now, you try. Your other arm should be ready to strike or block, at your side, like this."

Relena followed the instructions, and threw a right jab, feeling slightly silly.

"Good. Now, you want to turn that into this as soon as possible." Before Relena really had time to think about it, Heero's fist was positioned about an inch and a half from her face. She gasped. She hadn't even seen him _move_. And he was in the same place he had been before, except his fist was almost touching her nose. Relena's eyes went wide, and stared at his fist for a second before turning her gaze to his face. A motionless mask. He had not even changed the look on his face while he threw a punch that had probably broken the speed of sound. She stared into his eyes for a moment. They were like blue chips of ice imbedded in his face. Then, they softened, and he seemed to come out of battle mode. He slowly gave her that enigmatic smile again, and her eyes went even wider. She was being trained by someone more than human, whose humanity was beginning to resurface.

"Now, come with me." He led her over to another punching bag, and gestured. "Go ahead." He moved to her side and watched. 

Relena followed his instructions and hit the bag. "OW!" she said, shaking her hand. "That hurt!"

"And it will until you do it right. Here." He moved closer, knelt and put her legs in the proper position to strike. "You must be braced. Otherwise, connecting with the target may knock you off balance."

Relena's face flushed as Heero's hands moved her legs to the proper position. Was what he was saying true? Yes, it made logical sense. Then his hand moved upward, brushing her hip. She blushed a little, wondering if he was enjoying this. His hands gripped her shoulders, gently and subtly massaging them. Oh yes, he was enjoying this. He turned her upper body, facing her toward the bag. He positioned his body against hers, taking her wrists and putting them where they would be ready. And then……….

****

FLASH!

Heero's head snapped toward an almost hysterical Duo, standing in the doorway to the men's locker room and holding a camera. He let go of Relena and flew toward Duo, Getting halfway across the room before Duo realized what was happening and cried "THERE'S NO FILM!! THERE'S NO FILM!!" and frantically turning and tearing back into the locker room, hoping to get somewhere safe before Heero shot him, which a pursuing Heero silently swore to do once he caught the braided ass and his damn camera.

Relena was still in the stance Heero put her in, staring dumbfounded as Heero gave chase to Duo, hurtling back into the locker room, and undoubtedly back into the hall. She shook her head, turned her attention back to training, and began to practice her punches.

Duo slowly walked into the med lab to get an ice pack. Heero had caught him with a lunging tackle from behind while he had been running away, banging his forehead into the ground. He had then taken Duo's camera and opened the back, taking the film and tossing the camera back at him. He had then calmly walked away with the already ruined film. Duo had to laugh at how that must have looked, him running away at top speed through the halls, shrieking, with Heero in hot pursuit, and then Heero flying horizontally through the air and crashing into him at a good thirty miles an hour, skidding down the tiled hall for at least fifteen feet. He took the ice pack and pushed the fridge shut, hoping one of the security cameras had gotten it on film. He'd be watching it as often as possible for the rest of his life. He'd send a copy to Heero, too. He just _had_ to show that to Hilde. He grinned as he anticipated her reaction, which would probably be to laugh so hard she passed out. He laughed outright at that, easing the pain above his left eye a little.

As he left the med lab, he saw Hilde at the end of the hall, and ran over to her. She always was kind of an early riser. She was headed for his quarters, he guessed, because he was headed in the same direction.

"Hey, babe! How's it going?" he asked, sounding a little more cheerful than he felt.

"Oh, hell! Duo! What happened to your head?!"

"Come here and I'll show ya." He said, leading her toward the security room.

"Where are we going?"

"To get ourselves a home video."

"Home video? What the hell are you talking about?" she asked as he led her into the security room. This room housed the surveillance equipment and tapes, which were held on discs.

"Now will you answer me? We can't really go any further. What are we doing in the security room?"

"Come here and I'll show ya." He gestured to an empty seat next to him, and she sat down and stared at the screen he had brought up. She saw Heero holding Relena pretty close in the gym.

"Duo! What are you doing? Spying on them?" Then a bright flash filled the picture for a second, and Heero was instantly staring at the space directly below the camera. And faster than Hilde would have thought possible, was racing after what she supposed was the source of the flash. Then the screen shifted to a view from outside the boy's locker room, and caught a brief shot of Duo running for his life with a camera in his hand, followed closely by Heero. Now she knew what the flash was. "Duo! You were spying on them!" 

"Watch this, Hlide." He told her as the screen shifted. It was now from a hidden camera mounted on a wall in a hallway, about six feet up. It presented them with another image of Duo, though on this one you could see Duo's face, which was some twisted combination of terror and hysterical laughter, and was almost immediately followed by Heero's darkly serious face, which had death written all over it.

"He looks like he's about to strangle you. You really pissed him off." She'd never seen Heero angry enough to actually give chase to Duo.

"You ain't seen nothing yet. Take a look." Duo pointed to the screen, which had shifted back to another wall camera. Duo's hysterical face passed again, followed by a strange sight. Heero looked like he was flying. He whizzed past the camera at what looked like superhuman speed, completely horizontal. Before Hilde could give much more than a small cough of laughter, the screen shifted again, just in time to catch the now flying Heero slam into Duo from behind, wrapping his arms around his waist and tripping up his legs. Duo smashed into the ground, whacking his head into the floor and the both of them rolling across the ground for a couple of seconds. Duo had his Cheshire cat smile on his face, and as soon as the screen showed Heero jump on him, he began to howl with laughter. Hilde wasn't too far behind, but when she saw Heero stoop to pick up the camera, tear the film out, put it in his pocket, and toss the camera back at a seemingly unconscious Duo, it only intensified her peals of hysterical laughter. They both had to lean on each other just to keep from falling out of their chairs.

When he had recovered enough, Duo wiped the tears from his eyes and began copying the entire debacle onto seven discs he pulled out of a drawer. He'd give one to Hilde, one to Heero, one to Wufei, one to Trowa, one to Quatre and keep the last two for himself. When it was finished, he and Hilde walked back to his quarters, him with his arm over her shoulders and them both quietly shaking with barely contained laughter. They'd watch it again, this time on his couch, where they wouldn't fall off their perch so easily.

Duo took his time delivering the tapes. It took him all of about fifteen minutes to distribute them to the proper rooms, in small boxes outside their doors. 

Wufei woke up to the sound of people outside his quarters. Laying one hand on the katana stand he (naturally) kept beside his bed. He sat up and listened to the sound of retreating footsteps. Removing his hand from his companion, he slid out of bed and recalled why he had become possessed to place his katana stand beside his bed. The reason for this was, he had woken up one morning to find that one of his hair ties had somehow been interconnected, via methods unknown to him, with a seemingly endless chain of more hair ties, ending with a small note signed with a smiley face. "Have fun?" It read. He knew immediately who had done this, and that he would kill him in the longest way possible.

He was only able to dwell on that thought for a moment, however, because his mind suddenly had another question for him. _'How the hell did Duo get in here?' _The door was still locked from the inside.

He had still not found the answer to that inquiry, and he did not believe he ever would. He got dressed, and headed for the cafeteria, and their Muffins of Doom. He opened the door and found a small package waiting for him on the floor. It had that same smiley face and he knew who it was from.

__

'What in all hells has that baka been up to now?' he wondered as he set the package down at his desk, producing a small dagger he used as a letter opener from his top drawer. He carefully removed the packaging tape, and extracted a video disc. _'I'm not sure I even want to know what this is. That baka is worse than any onna when it comes to gossip and other such nonsense.' _Curiosity got the better of him, and he calmly walked to his monitor, sliding the disc into the small slot. _'WHAT the HELL?'_ the screen produced an image of Heero and Relena. It was obvious enough what THAT was. Then a flash renewed his curiosity, and he continued watching as Heero went tearing through the door. _'That was odd.'_ Before he could form another thought, the screen changed, and an apparently horrified Duo came hurtling out the doorway. _'I suspected as much. That baka gets himself into more hot water than anyone I've ever seen.' _He continued to watch the chase, and the sides of his mouth twitched upward as he saw Heero swoop across the screen, almost immediately followed by a screen switch and an extraordinarily satisfying scene, witch ended with an apparently either dead or unconscious Duo lying facedown in the hallway. Even if Duo he _was_ alive, it did nothing to lessen his good mood.

Wufei left his quarters, and headed for the cafeteria. He normally did not enjoy the food that was served there in the least, but at the moment he was not concerned with the quality of the food. He was looking for someone whom he would not normally seek out, in order to share the bizarre, though highly entertaining, gift he had received from Duo. When he was in a good mood, no one kept him in it like Sally. He knew he was acting like a baka, but he didn't care. For the first time in he didn't know how long, he felt sheer cheerfulness overwhelm his pride. Strange that it had taken probable injury to Duo to make him act like this. Remembering the tape, his mouth twitched a little, and he had to restrain a gasp of laughter. That was not something he was accustomed to having to do, though he was also not accustomed to seeing physical harm caused to Duo.

"Hey! Wufei! Over here!"

Wufei looked over his shoulder. Sure enough, there was Sally. She waved him over, somewhat bewildered at the expression on his face. 

'What's going on? He's never_ happy. And he is _not_ a morning person. Or an evening person. Hell, sometimes I wonder if he _is_ a person.'_

Yet, sure enough, there was a hint of a smile to his face, and his eyes were not the usual obsidian crystals she knew so well. He seemed almost lighthearted, a welcome change from the loud, angry, annoying justice freak she had seen just last night.

"So, what's with you? Why are you so…. cheerful?"

"That baka Maxwell has redeemed himself. If I ever get the chance, I will show mercy and kill him quickly."

Sally blinked at him. "What?"

"I have received a generous gift from Maxwell. Ironically, he was hurt in the process. And he was kind enough to record it for our viewing pleasure." 

He had a tape of Duo being hurt? It wasn't too bad, or she'd have heard about it by now, but that would cause Wufei no end of satisfaction. Still, she'd have to see it. 

"So, Wufei, where is this tape?"

"In my quarters, onna. Now, come with me. We will watch it."

Sally decided to ignore the commanding tone, but followed him anyway. She walked beside Wufei out of the cafeteria and down the hall, his expression never hardening at her presence or questions. She had no idea this side of Wufei even existed, much less that she'd ever see it. He was…….._pleasant. _She had never thought that would become any more than a distant, intangible dream……..and she accused _him_ of being a baka.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Heero had found his "gift" shortly after Wufei, and, while he would not normally attempt to exterminate a comrade-in-arms, much less during the recent attacks and what they symbolized, he was sorely tempted. He very quietly walked to Duo's room, and knocked on the door.

"Hold on a sec! Be right there, man!"

Heero was greeted several seconds later by a pair of veritably glowing violet eyes. In a split second though, they had morphed, and Duo had eye sockets the size of manhole covers. He gave a startled yelp and slammed the door in Heero's face. Heero could hear slight whimpering as Duo raced around his quarters, looking for a means of escape. Then, just as suddenly, the whimpers stopped, and so did the footsteps.

Heero gave up patience and forced the door a minute later. He looked inside Duo's closets, under his bed, in every conceivable place that baka could have hidden his pestilential person. Finally, after ten minutes of searching, he gave up and walked out on Duo's balcony. 

'Where the hell could that idiot have gone?' he thought as he looked out over Duo's view. He'd looked everywhere, and there was no trace of that braided baka. That guy's major must have been fleeing. He did'nt think someone could get away from him in an enclosed area, much less one with only on exit, except for the balcony he was standing on, and that was a good six stories up. 

Wait a minute.

Heero looked over to his right, and noticed a very narrow, maybe two or three inches, ledge that wrapped around the building. If he had been desperate enough, and those noises he was making indicated that he was, he would have had no choice in his mind but to try something so stupid. It was a good twenty feet to the next balcony, and that one was…….Hilde's. Great. Now he had to deal with a guy he could not trust _and_ his conspirator girlfriend. That moron, in his desperation, had walked a ledge on the side of a building _six stories up_ to get away from him. He felt slight amusement that Duo was that afraid of him. He hadn't even come there to kill him.

He turned around and walked back out of the room. Duo was long gone by now, and not even he would be able to find him until he wanted to be found.

Loud laughter resounded from Quatre's room. He had found his present, and had opened it much less suspiciously and with much more enthusiasm than the other two that had already received theirs. He had laughed harder than he had in recent memory at the image of Heero descending on Duo like a hawk on a sand rat. The opening scene had not particularly surprised him, he had picked up that those two were more than friends quite some time ago. He had been momentarily concerned that Duo was worse than just stunned, but had laughed even harder when he realized he was still moving. After he calmed down, he headed down to the cafeteria for breakfast, his morning repast of an omelet, some coffee, and a doughnut. 

On the way down, he passed Wufei and Sally, Wufei looking outright happy. He _never_ looked like that. He wrote it off as a quirk that he and his fellow pilots had so many of, and kept walking, somewhat confused, if a little relieved that Wufei would probably not be his usual loud self today.

Duo decided it was okay to move a little, and stretched in his very confining hiding place. He had chosen an air duct inside the security room for his retreat, and was becoming claustrophobic. He kicked the grate off the duct again, and crawled out into the darkened room. He decided to check back up on Relena on the security cams, and brought up the image. Same as last time. Still using the punching bag. She was already getting better than she was the last time he saw her, and he had to commend her for it. He grinned at the prospect of a pacifist princess kicking someone's ass. 

He checked on the other systems to pass some time while he waited for Heero to calm down a little. He checked the incoming shuttles, and one was unmarked. He hailed it, and the answer came back, in a female, though thoroughly disciplined, voice,

" This is Janai Yuy. Requesting permission to dock at Preventer Headquarters."

Duo's violet eyes almost popped out of his head. _'YUY?! Well, so much for hiding! I gotta go tell Heero! I wonder if he's married or something! Ha HA!'_

"You have the permission of lieutenant Duo Maxwell to land at docking bay seven. Proceed." He could hardly contain himself. '_Heero is going to actually react to something! Other than me!'_

He immediately got on the P.A. system and called, "Heero Yuy, report to docking bay seven. Immediately." _'Ohhh, man, that's gonna piss him off even more. It'll get him there fast, though.'_

Heero looked up as Duo called him over the P.A.

'That baka is SO going to get it.' He envisioned himself garroting Duo with his microphone wire, and allowed himself another one of his small smiles, and he thought it was a little strange that braided village idiot's discomfort could add to everyone else's enjoyment of a situation. He headed toward docking bay seven, where Duo likely had some sort of prank planned for him. He knew he was walking right into the jaws of the dragon, but this was too good a chance to pass up. Duo knew better than to order him around, just like he knew that Duo wouldn't obey any order from him that didn't have some sort of threat attached to it. 

Heero muttered another couple of muffled curses under his breath, and continued on his way. What was that moron going to try on him NOW? Dump a bucket of slime on him? Had he set a trap door into the ground? And Duo would likely have about two dozen cameras trained on him, so he could publicly humiliate him again. He was going to chop off that baka's braid and put it on his wall as a trophy. Or maybe he'd just flush it down Duo's toilet. Damn thing probably contained Duo's actual brain or whatever Duo had, slither off his wall, open his door, and relocate Duo to reattach itself.

He'd settle for killing Duo himself. His mind was coming up with stuff that would give other people nightmares. That cretin would pay for this. He was losing his mind. Now, if he DID put Duo's braid on his wall, he'd never get any sleep. He'd sit there all night staring at it, never blinking lest it come alive and strangle him. 

He came to the door to bay seven, took a deep breath, and pressed the button to open the door. He stepped inside, his eyes darting around, searching for traps that Duo might have set for him.

"Hey, Heero! Just in time! Over here!" Duo called from the control room about two stories up. 

Heero quickly got on the elevator and rode it up to Duo, wondering what the hell Duo was doing. If this was a prank, he was going to throw Duo off his perch, and try to shoot him on the way down. 

He reached the top, and stepped into the room. Duo was watching a monitor, which produced a picture of a carrier shuttle.

"Duo? What the hell is going on?"

"Ask her. Whoever she is."

Heero held down the button on the com and said, "This is Lieutenant Heero Yuy. Identify yourself."

"HEERO?!"

"_JAI_?!"

Duo knew that at least those two knew each other, even if he didn't know how. He knew they were related, but how? He hadn't seen her yet.

"Jai! What the hell are you doing here?"

"Coming to see you, what the hell else would I be doing?"

"………"

A somewhat startled Duo asked, "Well? Who is she?"

"She's my sister. Janai Yuy. Underwent a lot of the same training I did, though much less vigorously. She was meant to be backup should I be killed."

Duo was reeling. His SISTER? Oh, Christ, another perpetually happy face to contend with, he

thought sarcastically. Duo caught a happy gleam in Heero's eyes, and nothing else. He guessed there was probably not a lot of sibling rivalry there. At the very least was happy to see her. 

"Here comes the shuttle." Said Heero, unable to keep a slight edge of excitement out of his voice, and he hoped Duo hadn't heard it. The shuttle came in through the huge bay doors, and was docked shortly. Both Duo and Heero were waiting outside the exit when it opened. A slim, though muscled, young woman of 21 years walked out with a duffel bag over her shoulder. She had eyes the same color as Heero's, and Duo's laughing eyes and braid. She walked down the stairs to greet them, and when she got about three feet from them, she immediately dropped her duffel bag and gave Duo a slight bow. Then she turned to Heero and hugged him. Heero looked as surprised as Duo, though he made himself return the hug.

Duo watched for a minute, and then, after they broke apart, he looked at Heero for a second, and then turned to Jai, held out his arms, and said "What, no hug for me?" Earning himself a hard punch in the shoulder from Heero. "Ow!" he exclaimed, rubbing his shoulder, "A little overprotective, aren't we?" That earned another punch in the other shoulder. "Ow! Fine! Fine! Geez! I'll just go tell everyone, and set you up some quarters, OK? Damn! Right next to Heero's, I think it's safe to presume? See ya." He turned and walked out of the room, waving over his shoulder at the pair.

Both Heero and Jai stared at Duo's retreating form until the door closed behind him, and then turned to each other. Jai grabbed Heero again, and they both hugged each other in earnest.

When they let go for the second time, and Jai looked Heero up and down, and nodded her approval. "How long has it been, Heero? Since I last saw you?"

"Six years. Eight months. Twenty seven days. Damn, I missed you. Now, what are you doing here? You know as well as I do that you never would have come here unless you had a better reason than you wanted to see me."

"It's a good enough reason in itself, but you're right. I have a better one. I am becoming a preventer. The only reason I didn't come sooner is that I was having THIS built." She waved at the shuttle. "Then, when I saw that battle yesterday, It had just been finished, and I thought I'd come to help you."

"You were having WHAT built? The shuttle? Or don't I want to know what's inside?"

Jai gave him a grin. "Definitely what's inside. Come on. I'll show you." She headed back toward the shuttle. Heero shrugged and followed her.

When they got in, Heero was treated to a spectacle. It was a mobile suit, but it was covered in reflective Gundamium. It looked like a silver mirror. Other than that, it was very much like the Wing Zero. It even had the same angel wings, but even they were reflective.

"Allow me to introduce you to my mobile suit. The Gundam Starfire."

Heero noted the apparent absence of a short-range weapon. The outside, while reflective, was covered with small indents, and he had no idea what THOSE were. 

"Heero! Over here! Hurry! WHOA! Cool! What the hell is THAT?" Duo, rushing into the shuttle, had stumbled onto the Gundam that Jai had brought with her. It was like looking into a shattered mirror. He could see himself in about forty-seven different places at the same time. "Man! Got enough chrome on that thing? …Oh yeah! Somebody sent out another squadron of dolls! They're on a collision course with Earth, and the tracking computer says that they'll be here in about three hours! Suit up!" And quickly ran back through the door, heading toward the suit hanger.

Once again, the siblings watched Duo scamper back out the door, then turned to each other. "Well, looks like you'll see the capabilities of this suit sooner than you thought. Think of this as my aptitude test to become a preventer." Jai said, a wry smile on her face."

Heero stared at her, wondering when she had become quite so impulsive. There was nothing he could do to stop her, of course, all he could do was try to prevent her from getting hurt when they joined the battle. He was the epitome of an over protective brother when he had the chance, and here was his chance. 

"Well, for once, Duo's right. You'd better suit up. I'll do the same, and we'll meet in orbit. We'll try to engage the suits as far away from Earth as possible, or civilian shuttles will end up like you would have if you'd been a couple hours late." Heero headed back out the door, and turned toward the suit hangar.

Jai watched him go, and silently thanked whichever entity had given her patience enough to spend three months trying to hack through a minimum of seven firewalls and security systems into Heero's computer. She couldn't believe that he had been that careful guarding a personal computer. It was worth it, though. The training programs that he had designed for the Zero system had been very beneficial, and she was now at least as good a pilot as they were, though she suspected from the advanced training sessions that he was quickly and covertly upgrading his private system. The advanced sessions would have been enough to convert any normal human's brain into baked lasagna, and had been too well protected for her to do any more than analyze them from Heero's computer. She shook her head and hit the switch that controlled the conveyor belt Starfire was kneeling on, and it slowly rolled out, coming to rest on the floor in front of her. She opened the bay doors, climbed into the cockpit, and powered up the systems. She kicked in the main engines, and rocketed out the bay doors into full sunlight. The light glinted off the suit from every angle, illustrating one of the reasons the suit had been named Starfire. It looked like it was cast from molten illumination. She blasted into space, meeting the other five Gundams that were already waiting for her in orbit

"What in all hells is _that_?" came a bewildered voice over the com from Wufei.

"We don't have time to talk. We have to intercept those dolls." Stated Heero. 

"Yeah, I know. Let's hurry." Jai said, having been warned of Wufei's dispositions.

"A _woman_? Now what the hell is going on? Last I heard, we were a team of five, not six. And all _she's _going to do is get in our way."

Jai laughed, and said, in a cheerily menacing voice, "Oh, really? Let's see who's the weaker. Whoever destroys more suits is the stronger. The others will fight, but there will be a little contest between you and me."

"Fine by me. Prepare to acknowledge your superior." Wufei shot back.

"I will. If you beat me. Which I assure you will not." Jai stated, and rocketed away toward the incoming mobile dolls.

Once the battle was engaged, all six suits had drawn their weapons and had been treated to the first display of Starfire's abilities. From a small indent above the right wrist, a white thermal blade was issued. It wielded this blade as an extension, and was ripping the dolls to ribbons. She raked the white halberd across another doll, and as several suits descended on hers, and the other five rushed to help her. They were stunned as silver light beamed from inside the tangled mass of suits, and suddenly, the dolls began to detonate. This allowed a clear view of Starfire, living up to it's name and casting deadly light rays at anything within range. These rays were fired from some three dozen small indents strewn all over the Gundam's armor.

"Holy crap! What IS that damn thing _called_? DiscoBall? " Duo laughed.

Jai began to rush through the battle, striking down any doll close enough with the fatal beams, still glowing like living Moonstone, and still slicing her halberd through any doll that survived her secondary weapon. The others watched the mesmerizing suit whenever they could, which was often, with the Starfire seeming the larger threat to the dolls, which had then grouped up to mount a full scale attack on it, only to be destroyed.

When the battle was finished, with the Gundams victorious, the six warriors congratulated Jai on her feats of mass destruction, no one wanting to remind Jai and Wufei of their wager. Wufei seemed to have forgotten about it, and that was probably a good thing, what with the fact that if Wufei had been reminded, he might have been robbed of his good mood from that morning


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

While the display of Starfire's power was an inspiration, Heero was beginning to wonder if a suit that powerful wouldn't be singled out for a bombing, or a surprise attack with something like a space laser. If the Starfire were the greater threat, the logical course of action would be to try to destroy it first. The only smart way to counteract this was to make the other Gundams more powerful. The dumb way was to make the Starfire less powerful, and while that was more economical, it was also stupid, and a waste of power.

Now, how to improve them. Heavyarms naturally needed a new weapon of some sort. He could not defend himself when he ran out of ammunition. Almost the exact opposite, with Sandrock. He had no long range weapon, and that was a major shortcoming. Deathscythe was well balanced, but still needed a long range weapon capable of attacking more than one suit at a time. Altron had a long range weapon, but it needed to retract it to do anything again. That needed to be modified. Wing Zero, while it had a short and long range weapon, needed to be able to use them in conjunction, like Starfire. All of them did. He'd have to ask Jai the best way to do that. She designed Starfire, and likely had specs and blueprints of the rest of the Gundams.

Jai had come to the same conclusion by herself, and had resolved to discuss it with Heero while her quarters were being prepared. She would have to keep her vital luggage with her, that went without saying. She was a spy, after all, and anything she kept with her was either for vital security, or was of extreme sentimental value. She had only a few personal belongings, and every single one of them had a long string of memories tied to it. Some good, some bad, but they were memories, things she hoped to share with Heero someday. Many of the memories and experiences in question involved him in some way, but had been brutally beaten out of him in the quest to create the perfect soldier. All emotion had been erased from his mind, and his body had been programmed to have the highest pain tolerance ever documented. He had not been trained. He had been programmed, down to the last thought. He was only now regaining his lost humanity, and she hoped it would be enough of a help that she was here with things from their past. 

When they returned to headquarters, Starfire resting with the other Gundams, Heero decided to introduce Jai, inasmuch as several of the gundam pilots had very confused looks on their faces. 

Heero stood from the conference table, instantly silencing all conversation, and drawing all eyes to him. Duo had to wonder how he did that without so much as glaring at anyone. Air of power, he supposed. Anyone who could do that so effortlessly was a born leader. 

Heero began with, "This is my sister. Janai Yuy."

Subtle as always, Duo thought, treating himself to amazed expressions from the other pilots. Trowa was surprised, but naturally, being Trowa, he did not show it. Quatre and Wufei, however, not being quite so restrained as Trowa, had to pick up their jaws with both hands. 

Duo, trying not to laugh, was making sounds like half a dozen whales surfacing simultaneously. He wished he had his camera NOW. This was better than Heero and Relena, and was less likely to get him killed. Pretty much anything, including setting off the self-detonation device on his Gundam while he was inside, was less likely to get him killed. Besides, those two were so stunned, and Quatre looked something other than stunned, Duo noted, it would be ten minutes before either of them realized he had taken a picture, let alone that he was gone.

Trowa, his usual self, calm and in control, asked, "When did she get here? And where did she get that suit?"

"She designed the Gundam Starfire from the ground up. And she arrived about two hours ago. I was expecting her even less than you, and you didn't know she existed."

"And I wouldn't be more surprised if I woke up tomorrow with my head sewn to the carpet." Duo stated, earning a smack on the shoulder from Hilde, who was also attending the meeting. "Ow! Quit doing that!"

"Now, keep quiet, or you WILL wake up tomorrow with your head sewn to the carpet."

"Smack him again. He needs it." Said Jai, and Hilde gave Duo another whack on the arm.

"Ow! The first time you've even heard her voice, and you do exactly what she says?! What kind of a friend ARE you?" he said, smiling, and giving Hilde a slight shove, which she returned.

"Shut up! I don't need to hear you two bakas bickering for ten minutes!" Wufei returned his attention to Jai and said "How did you make that suit so powerful? Without draining the generator or overheating? I'd like to apply design elements from your Gundam to Nataku."

Jai smiled warmly, exercising her ability to put others at ease. "Actually, that's what I was thinking. Your gundams need new design elements. You are designed to be able to take on any suit in single combat, but you lack the ability to attack large numbers of opponents individually. The latter is exactly what any enemy will throw at you. I would like to help. With your permission, of course, I will give new weapons or features to each of your Gundams to help them adjust to the tactics that have come into use by our enemies."

Heero silently admired Jai's tact. She had managed to make herself a necessity to the team already, and was on the good side of even the most irritable Gundam pilot. That in itself was no easy feat, made harder by Wufei's superiority complex. He was glad that Jai had made so much of a show of Starfire's power, and impressed Wufei while at the same time earning his respect. There were very few women who were able to get much of anything from Wufei, much less open respect. He had hoped that his statement about Jai's abilities as a mechanic and designer would earn appreciation of her as a teammate. 

When all of the pilots had agreed to allow her access to their Gundams, Heero and Jai made their way to his quarters, Jai, as always, with her duffel bag over her shoulder. When they got in, Jai set down her stuff, and walked over to Heero's couch, positioned across the room from his T.V., and sat down.

"Oh, man, that feels good. This is the most comfortable I've been in almost a week. And it certainly feels the most like home." Heero cocked an eyebrow at her, and she grinned. "I mean with _you_ here, you little….. Oh, god, let's not start that crap again," She laughed, "We've been doing that ever since we could talk. We don't need to start calling each other names already!"

Heero laughed with her. Jai wouldn't let it through, but she was relieved that he was able to laugh again.

"I need to go take a shower. Make yourself at home." He walked to the bathroom off his bedroom, and Jai heard the door click and the shower start. She took the remote off the table next to his couch, and turned on the T.V. 

Midway through his shower, Heero heard loud laughter emanating from his living room. '_What the hell is she laughing at? It's not like I keep those weird movies that Duo likes around."_

He walked out of the shower, and dried himself off. After he got dressed, Jai was still laughing, having slid halfway off his couch, and was about to fall on the floor. He walked over and helped her back onto the couch, looking at the T.V. after he sat down. Sure enough, there was an image of Heero latched to a falling Duo's waist in mid air frozen on the screen. She must have picked up his remote and hit the play button, and he had left the disc Duo had given him in the player. He himself had to smile a little at the image of him running Duo down.

When Jai stopped laughing long enough to recover her wits, she asked why exactly he had tackled Duo.

"I take it you still can't pry that far into _me, _huh?"

"Yes, my brother, we both know that you've always been able to repel my little mind probes. Now, answer the question."

"I further reason that you didn't watch the entire disc."

"Yes. Now, where is this going?"

"Here." Heero took the remote, and flipped the screen back to where Duo had begun recording.

"Ohhhhh, I get it. You're pretty close with Relena, right? I can sense _that_ much radiating from you right now."

"Watch." He told her, and they both returned their attention to the screen. The scene with the flash played, and Jai suddenly knew what had happened. 

"Oh, Jesus, you ran him down because he did _that_?"

"Yes." Heero stated flatly, "And that baka apparently almost immediately went to the security room, got the whole thing on discs, and distributed them among the rest of the pilots."

Jai snorted back another gasp of laughter, and simply shook for a moment until she noticed the look on Heero's face.

"Uh oh. They didn't know, right?"

"Not _that_ much. Maxwell, curse his soul, has known almost as much as me for quite some time, and has been trying to expose it ever since. I don't think Relena cares whether everybody knows it or not, but I have my dignity, and not to mention the fact that while of course _you,_ with your little mind tricks, knew almost immediately, the others don't care too much, and don't pay much attention to me, or anyone else."

"I suppose that's a good thing. Duo is at least good for a laugh, if only at your expense."

"He's little more than a huge pain in the ass. And while that's not much, it's enough. I'm seriously beginning to question his sanity. And if he keeps this kind of stuff up, I'm going to start to question mine. You would not believe the crap my head is coming up with when I think of what I'm going to do to him."

"Let me see."

"What?"

"Let me see. You know I'm a telepath, but you have somehow been able to resist any probe I've ever thrown at you. If you let me, I can see what you're thinking."

"Believe me, you don't want to. How about some breakfast? It's only ten o clock. "

"You want me to cook you breakfast?" Jai asked incredulously.

"No way! The last thing you cooked for me was an omelet, and that was six years ago, and I can STILL use that thing as a frisbee. God help us if it ever falls into the hands of the Earth Sphere defense department." He walked to his kitchen, and from there he called, "That damn thing could be used to deflect small arms fire, and has somehow managed to avoid decomposition."

"All right, point taken. Now, lay off my cooking. And…….wait a minute. You still have the OMELET I gave you?!"

"It's one of only two memoirs I have of you. One's a picture on my desk, and the other is a six-year-old, ham and cheese omelet that is harder than rock and tougher than third world toilet paper. You wouldn't believe how easy it is to smuggle something so dangerous through customs."

"Heero, I always knew you were a little crazy, but this tops it off."

"You're one to talk. Giving me something that could be mistaken for a hubcap and expecting me to eat it."

Jai secretly relished this talk. It meant that Heero was at least learning to talk to people, if only to her. He was even funny, and was even managing to poke fun at her cooking. She had to admit, though, that wasn't too hard to do. The last time she cooked something, she almost melted the stove. 

Ten minutes later, Heero came back out of the kitchen with two plates of food, eggs, sausage, and a glass of juice.

"Since when do you know how to cook?" asked jai, as she took a bite, and her eyes widened. "Hey, this isn't half bad. If you ever get tired of being a pilot, I'll hire you on as my chef." She turned back to her food, and resumed eating, and Heero followed her example. Using the Zero system always sapped everybody's strength, and food was a quick refuel. She took a sip of juice, and renewed the conversation. 

"How have you been, anyway? You know what they assigned me to, after they sent you off?"

"No. Actually, I tried a couple of times since Marimeia's coup to locate or contact you, but never had any success. I figured they just kept you around."

"Gee, such confidence in my abilities," Jai said, a sardonic tint to her voice. "They made me a spy. I gathered intelligence for your missions during and after operation meteor. It was a bitch keeping up with you guys, you know that?"

Heero just stared at her. A spy? Yes, with her telepathic powers, that made sense. What better way to interrogate someone than not even really asking them anything? They knew Quatre was an empath, but that was nowhere near what Jai was. She could literally sift through someone's mind, while Quatre could only pick up on feelings or thoughts that were expressed at that moment. It took quite a bit of training from a large group of people who were, essentially, professional psychics to train her, and she was more powerful than any of them. He had been trained as a soldier and a pilot, and so had she, but she received special training while he was learning to pilot the Wing Gundam. Apparently she was being trained as a spy to gather intelligence on OZ bases and such. She was not exactly hard on the eyes, either, and that helped put her victims at ease, he supposed. In fact, he had caught Quatre staring, and while he couldn't blame him, he'd have to try to extinguish anything that was kindling in his mind. 

The door opened, and Duo walked in a few steps. "Your quarters have been prepared, Miss Yuy." He said with a flourish and a bow, and Jai smiled at him. She then turned to Heero, who was giving Duo the nastiest death glare she had ever seen, and she had seen a lot of those, having been around the person who pioneered their use, but that only served to encourage Duo, and he grinned.

"You know, I think I'm beginning to like him."

Jai picked up her duffel bag, and walked toward the door.

"Carry your luggage, my lady?" said Duo, as he reached for her bag, only to have his arm struck with a swift chopping motion from Jai, and suddenly he couldn't feel or move his arm anymore.

"What the--?" Questioned Duo, as he stared at his arm with slight amusement. 

"That should wear off in about ten minutes, and don't ever try to touch my stuff again." Jai cautioned, even as her smile grew even broader.

Duo nodded, amusement still in the lines of his eyes and mouth. He walked down the hall with Jai and Heero in tow, one arm hanging limply at his side, still refusing any command from his brain.

"I'll have to have you teach me how to do that," duo said to Jai. "It's a good move that disables the limb without pain."

They reached Jai's room, only about fifty feet down the hall from Heero's, and Duo opened the door and gestured inside with his good arm. When Both Heero and Jai had entered, he shook his head, and stole another glance at his currently useless arm. He had to hope Jai was right, and this would wear off soon, or he'd be counting on five fingers for the rest of his life. He shrugged, and was silently glad she hadn't chopped BOTH his arms, or he'd look like some sort of primate wandering the halls of preventer H.Q., and he'd have to pilot Deathscythe with his teeth, dramatically cutting down on his combat performance. Plus, he really didn't want to know what those control sticks tasted like.

The feeling was beginning to come back to his arm, though Duo still couldn't move it. He made his way to the shooting range, and he was a better shot using only one hand anyway.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Heero left Jai to arrange her quarters as she saw fit. He decided he needed an outlet for some of the raw emotion he was feeling right then. Putting holes in things usually helped, strangely enough. To anyone who didn't know him even marginally, anyway. To avoid an outburst that could result in some plaster related repairs, he rested his hand on the gun he now kept in a holster under his jacket, although he still kept his trusty revolver in a small ankle holster. He stepped into the elevator and pushed the button for sub-basement one, where the shooting range was. He always got a degree of satisfaction from looking at the faces on people as he put the target back to the maximum possible range and putting a single hole through each eye socket, one in the forehead, and one in each of the vital organs. One time, he had shot a line of bullets, each hole interconnected, around the arm that held the target in the air, causing the arm to be holding nothing but a small semi-circle of paper, and the rest of the target, sans scalp, to fall on the floor. He had accomplished this in about two seconds, and shot eight times. When he left, everyone else was still wondering whether their hearts were going to start beating again.

When he walked into the range, he noticed a target near the other side of the room, and while he watched, two eyes, a nose, and a smiley face were carved into the head of the target with bullet holes. He knew instantly who was in THAT stall, and decided to go have a little talk with Mr. Marksman, AKA Duo. He kept right on shooting smiley faces into innocent paper while Heero walked up behind the stall he was using. He tapped Duo on the shoulder,

"GAH!" Duo yelped, causing the next shot to go wild, right into the forehead of a target that already had a nose and two eyes.

"Don't DO that!" Duo exclaimed, turning to face Heero. "I don't see your name on this stall, and I was here first!"

"I don't want the stall, you baka. I came down here for the same reason you did."

"What, Jai nail YOUR arm, too? He asked, peering at Heero's left side with wide eyes. Duo held up previously immobilized arm. "This thing is just now coming back under my control." He looked back at his target, and grimaced. "Oh, that's gotta hurt. Sorry, man." He turned back to Heero, and said. "I hope you don't think I'm trying to take the skirmish onto enemy ground, but did you notice the way Quatre was looking at Jai? I don't think I've ever seen him look at someone like that. Especially those weird girls his sister….now what the hell was her name….Oh yeah! Kellee! Why is she always trying to set him up?" he asked, turning back to his target.

"I don't think she likes to see him alone, even with us as friends."

"Hey, we're better company than those funky chicks she keeps sending to him!" He shot one…two…three…four…five more times. "They always act like they're around royalty and they have to see to his every need. That's a good quality in a maid, not someone she seems to think he wants to spend some time with." He brought the target back up to the counter, unclipped it, and handed it to Heero. "Here. You keep this. Suits you well enough" Duo walked away, and Heero watched him go. He then looked at the target. It had a nose, two eyes, a hole in it's forehead, and……and a frown on it's face.

__

'That guy's got a weird sense of humor.' He thought as he occupied the stall Duo had vacated. He had to acknowledge that he was a good source of information, even if he was a bigger irritation than a horde of locusts. 

His attention was on Quatre right now, though, and he had to get the point across to him that Jai was not exactly available, inasmuch as either he or his sister would probably apply some sort of sleeper hold if Quatre got too close. Every time he made an advance, he'd wake up about half an hour later with a brush burn on his forehead from sliding down the wall after one of the Yuy twins jabbed a nerve ending in his neck or something.

He began to shoot, with the usual speed and accuracy that he was sometimes glad had been pounded into him. There were things about being the supposed "perfect soldier" that he, in fact, enjoyed. He could make a pile of these targets two feet high with that you'd be able see straight through in six or seven places at once if you held them up right.

Quatre remained in his quarters for the morning, playing his violin. The crystalline voice of the bow and the strings dancing conjured images his mind gladly embraced. His home, his sisters, this whole planet, now that peace reigned. While his instrument sang, his soul sang with it. He would do this as often as possible, and he pitied those who could not. Sweet music flowed from his softly swaying form, and put him at peace. It was slightly different this morning, though. The song of the strings called up another image, one he had not seen before that morning. 

__

'Janai'

Her beauty was parallel to that of the sweet song that had conjured it's image. Fitting, he supposed, as he set the violin back in it's case, and left his quarters refreshed from the morning's battle, and in the process, nearly ran into the goddess he had been thinking of.

"Ah, nice to see you again, Janai." He said, a pleasant smile on his face while he made a short bow. 

"Please, call me Jai. Anyone I consider a friend does. Quatre, right?"

"Right." Quatre couldn't help noticing that her smile made his knees weaken a little, and that she had _extremely _blue eyes. It was like staring into two sparkling sapphires. Before he could be caught gawking, however, he renewed the conversation. "That was very impressive work up there. I think even Heero was a little stunned, and being his sister, you should know that it isn't easy to surprise Heero."

"Yes, actually, I was going down to the database to collect some information on your Gundams. If I'm going to help redesign parts of them, I'm going to need to install new generators, and new circuitry in some places. I need to know how big the current housings for the original generators are."

"Perhaps I could be of some help. I would be of the most help redesigning Sandrock, of course, but I imagine I could help with the rest of them, too." '_Please say yes.' _He pleaded silently, as she pretended to think it over.

"All right. One more good brain to work on the problem. Now come on, let's head down. We've got work to do." She said as she turned to the elevator, waited until he got in, and pushed the button for the floor the computer database was on.

Later, after Jai had collected the design specs on the rest of the Gundams, Quatre looking over her shoulder pretty much the entire time, her trying to focus as much of her attention on the computer as she could, while being mentally assaulted by admittedly eloquent compliments radiating from him. She had never really known that you could still have a way with words in your own head. She couldn't remember when she had ever been so highly praised, and while she enjoyed it, it was somewhat unnerving.

When she and Quatre went their separate ways, she sought out Heero. She found him at the shooting range, _'of all places,'_ she added silently. She walked up behind the stall he was in, and said his name. He didn't even flinch, and she had to admire his control, anyone else would have at least missed a shot when someone came up silently behind them and suddenly said something. No such luck. His next shot went directly through the target's left eye. 

She reached beside him toward a pile of targets about two inches high, and held up about half of them. She produced a small flashlight from a pouch at her belt, and shone it at the back of the targets. You could see the light through the entire stack all at once, in about seven places.

"Come on. I have something to discuss with you." She said, and led him back to the quarters. On the way she told him about Quatre, and repeated some of the most flattering compliments she had ever received, much less from someone who didn't see fit to voice them. 

When she was done, Heero turned to her and asked, "One bullet or two?"

Jai laughed. This side of Heero was hers, and no one else even had a hint that it existed. "What are you, a hit man? I didn't shoot him, and you aren't going to, either."

Heero was beginning to worry about this. She had never enjoyed being flattered before she got here. She was more likely to knock you out if you tried. Maybe it was because it was only Quatre's thoughts she had picked up on, and he hadn't actually said anything. In any case, he would have to try to deter Quatre from his undoubted future ambitions. He discussed the remodeling ideas for the Gundams half-heartedly. He had other things on his mind. Jai, who didn't have to read his mind to tell he didn't particularly want to talk. She eventually made an excuse to make an exit, and left him to himself.

Heero thought about his problem for a moment. He had a sister who had forgotten more ways to kill someone than Quatre ever knew, and second, he had a friend that was apparently either infatuated with this sister, or had never seen a girl before. The guy grew up with something like twenty eight sisters. He knew what women looked like. That ruled out the second possibility. Now, he had to make Quatre realize this without letting him realize it was him who planted the seed. Quatre was astute, so it would be harder to….tweak him in the right direction. And Jai had a temper like nobody's business, so he had to trod carefully, or there would be bruised pilots. He smiled, recalling her flashfire fits of rage. She would not be so gentle, would his sister.

Quatre was back in his quarters, working on copies of the design specs, looking for the areas that would require modification. He had been at it for about twenty minutes when there came a knock at the door. Remembering his manners, he went to answer it. Heero's calm eyes met his.

"Oh! Heero! Come in, I wasn't expecting you."

Heero walked into Quatre's living room, and looked around. Spotting the computer with Wing Zero's design on the monitor, he walked over and observed the modifications Quatre was making to the basic weapon systems. He nodded approval.

"So, Quatre, what do you think of Jai? I mean, you're the only one besides me who's really spent any time with her."

"I think very highly of her. She's a strong woman, and a good pilot."

"She ought to be. She was trained the same way I was. I was trained more as a pilot, she more as a spy. You should have seen the male candidates for the training. I think one of the reasons she was chosen along with me was that she was able to repel their advances without seriously injuring them."

In that instant, Quatre learned what jealousy was. He wanted to know the name of every other man that had ever even looked at her, whether they had touched her…..and most especially where to find these men so he could kill them. What was wrong with him? He hadn't even touched her, let alone kissed her, and she was already able to make him think like this?

"Yes, I can see just from her appearance that she'd be a target. But from what I heard happened to Duo, I don't think they ever got very far!" he said with remarkable control, and laughed.

Heero saw that this was working, and continued. "We both went through training that would prepare us for virtually any contingency, as a soldier, or as a person. If we both looked like I always do, we'd be dead before we were able to say a word. We learned how to use peoples minds and bodies against them, use their pain, _and their pleasure_" he added, with a hint of importance to it," to our advantage."

He let that sink in for a moment. Quatre stared at him with wide eyes as he went over what Heero had just said. Pleasure? They were both trained to use _pleasure_ against people? _'Oh…..shit.'_ he thought, as Heero's meaning dawned on him. 

Heero saw that Quatre took his meaning, and acted as though he didn't know what was making him suddenly quiver with an effort to keep control. Heero made the pretense of Quatre not looking so good, and left his quarters. Quatre knew that it was no secret that he never chased after women, and that he had always been conservative when it came to their sex. He was not totally ignorant of sexual matters, but he lacked real knowledge, and it galled him. Not surprising in a man his age, he directed his anger at her. How could he measure up to a woman of her undoubted accomplishments? He cursed his methods and his ethics for getting him into this mess. He had never distributed his favors among the girls here at H.Q., much to their chagrin. Production of bastards was never a good idea, and he had long ago sworn to himself that he would not complicate his succession by siring any. He considered taking up one of the girls here on one of their previous offers, but at this juncture his pride rebelled. Why should he settle for someone he had rejected in the past? He had worked himself around almost to the point that he almost didn't care if everyone at H.Q. lined up outside his rooms to observe his choice of a bedmate. Here, however, he met an unexpected obstacle. Not one female here at H.Q, with one obvious exception, appealed to him. Any girl he might have considered lost any charms they might have otherwise held for him when he contrasted them with Jai. Besides, the image of himself as an infamous seducer was ludicrous.

Quatre's masculine pride had taken a serious blow, and his sense of humor was unable to make up the balance. He was in little evidence around the suit hangar or the database, for Jai still occupied those areas, and he avoided her like poison. Jai had no idea what had suddenly come over him, but was beginning to wonder what had happened to him that he was in such a foul mood. Everyone advised her that one of the wisest courses of action when Quatre was pissed was to sail to the Philippines and not come back until his temper had cooled. She thought that that was a little extreme, but she had seen him in he halls, and if looks could kill, he'd have wiped out enough people to rival the population of Brazil. She had avoided him as well, not wanting to give him an unpleasant outlet for whatever was ticking him off so much. She tried to use her telepathy as little as possible around her friends, but she was beginning to think Quatre was in need of some serious probing. 


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Jai decided to set up an "accidental" meeting with Quatre, or at least try to cross his path. When she managed it, he was coming out of his room for lunch, he had to eat sometime, and she passed him, giving him a quick scan. What she saw bewildered her. And then ignited her temper, and she stormed off toward Heero's quarters.

Duo, who had also been monitoring Quatre by hacking into the building's security system through his laptop, at Heero's request, noticed something strange. Jai had been standing in a walking position outside Quatre's door for the better part of five minutes. Then, when Quatre came out of his quarters for lunch, she started walking, and went by him. She paused for a moment, and when he transferred to a different camera for a better view, he almost choked on his pepsi. Her face had absolute fury written all over it. He could take an educated guess at what she had just found out, inasmuch as Heero had notified him that she was telepathic. 

"Uh oh. That isn't even a Yuy _death_ glare. That's like…_doomsday_ glare, or something." Heero had told him about his plan, and when he saw Jai head toward Heero's quarters, he knew that someone's getting hurt. He very quickly set a new disc into the slot, and scrolled to a camera recording Heero's room. He was about to witness what he figured would be the fight of the century. Two people, who were trained in every conceivable way to kill someone, knew every nerve ending in the human body, and how to use them. Siblings, both knew all of the other's weaknesses. _'This is going to be SO cool._' He thought as he pulled a burger out of his takeout bag.

Jai busted the door to Heero's room open with minimal effort, saw him sitting at his laptop, and stomped over to him, and kicked the back legs off the chair he was sitting on. It was only a momentary upset, as Heero turned the fall backward into a roll, grabbed Jai's calf, and spun it around, effectively throwing her off balance. When both of them had recovered, they were facing each other in their individual fighting stances. So they were basically just standing there staring at each other. 

"I suppose you figured it out."

""Figured it out!" she rushed him with a flying elbow, which he countered, tripping a foot as she went by. This didn't trouble her, though, for as she went down, she spun and lashed out with her left foot, which was also blocked by Heero. She turned the fall into a backward roll, and was up almost immediately. She rushed him again, this time with a running kick. He knocked it aside, attempted an attack of his own with his left fist. She ducked, and the punch went over her right shoulder. She got up again, and grabbed his still outstretched arm, spun him around, and flung him through the air across the room. Heero flipped forward through the air, did a half turn, and landed on his feet facing Jai. They both glared at each other for a moment, and the next instant, they were both about a foot away from each other, smothered in a flurry of kicks and punches. None connected on either of them, as they were blocked, brushed aside, or grabbed for a throw. When they were grabbed, the throw was met with it's counter, which left them both staring at each other from across the room again. Neither would back down, and neither was tiring. Jai attempted a spin kick, Heero ducked under it, attempted to kick her other leg out from under her, but she leaped in mid kick and aimed a roundhouse punch at Heero's face. Heero met her fist with the side of his arm, and blocked it. Jai reversed her spin, and aimed another fist at Heero's head, but he blocked it and threw another kick. She caught his leg in mid air, attempted to knock the other out from under him, but he leaped over her foot and in the same move, aimed his leg at Jai's head. She ducked under it, and his other leg was torn from her grasp. Once again, they were staring at each other from a small distance. Heero lashed out with a lunging kick, and turned it into a spin when she ducked. At the same time, they both lashed out with their right hand at each other's necks, and both hit the same nerve, and both collapsed in a heap on the floor, unconscious. 

Duo had never had so much fun in his life. This was better than he expected, and he expected a lot. He hacked on his burger when Jai smashed Heero's chair, and was then treated to the best fight he had ever seen, in a movie or otherwise. It was like watching a acrobatics show, or a fight where they had to try to hit something that wasn't there. When they both somehow managed to knock each other out, Duo almost died laughing. They both nailed each other in the side of the neck, and formed a large lump on the carpet. When he had finally recovered, his food forgotten, he ran out to seek medical help for the unconscious siblings. He ran down the hall, and across the building to the Med Lab. He burst through the door, struggling with uncontrollable giggles again, and gestured for Sally, and Wufei, who was with her, to follow him. Halfway back Sally saw him regain his composure, and asked him what was going on.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you." He said, wiping tears of laughter from his eyes. He turned to Wufei, who was running alongside them. "You're coming too, Wu-chan?"

"Don't call me that. And yes, I am coming. Your last gift was so entertaining, why miss this? Where are we going, anyway?"

"To Heero's quarters. Or what's left of them." Remembering what he had managed to catch on tape, he started laughing again, and had to slow down a little. As they passed Hilde's quarters, Duo knocked on the door as they went by, and Hilde opened the door a few moments later. She looked around, and spotted the trio down the hall. 

"Hey! Wait up! What's going on? DUO!!" she called after them, as she ran to catch up. "Damn it." she whispered to herself as she ran. What was he up to now? And with Sally and Wufei in tow? 

When they reached Heero's quarters, Hilde having caught up, they noticed what Duo supposed he should have suspected. The door was already open, Jai having been too furious to really care whether it was closed or not. The four walked cautiously into the living room, not really knowing what to expect. What they encountered was several dozen small pieces of former furniture, holes in the walls, a hole in the floor about the size of a foot, and the Yuy twins in a small pile in the middle of the room. Sally's eyebrows shot up as she took this in. She walked over to them, and checked each of their pulses.

"Well, they're both okay, physically. From the way they seem to have collapsed, they hit each other at almost the same time, to the milli second."

Wufei was still surveying the damage to the rooms. The fight seemed to have ranged over pretty much every room. How had they managed to virtually destroy almost everything else, and somehow not harm each other? And how had Jai, training or no training, managed to stand against Heero? No one else among them was likely to last more than three seconds. He decided it was time to revise his list of weaklings further, and mark out another name. He studied the hole that had been put in the floor. Finishing move, he reasoned, though it appeared to have missed. The holes in the walls and the obliterated furniture were easily explained. They had managed to dogde rediculously powerful strikes, and those strikes had then contacted the furniture or walls. He shook his head, and walked back to the other three. 

Duo was turning crimson trying not to laugh, and Hilde was doing the same. No one here had ever seen Heero completely unconscious, and while it was unnerving, it was somehow amusing to see Heero so peaceful, his mouth hanging slightly open, and Jai the same. His eyes were closed, lightly, and he seemed to be almost……..well, happy. Heero never let emotion out, and Duo had wondered on several occassions whether he HAD emotions. 

As if on cue, both if the sibling's eyes snapped open, and they sprang apart, adopting their quasi stances again. They both had the most hideously make-grown-men-cry EVIL looks on their faces, glaring at each other once more. Only then did they seem to notice the visitors, and eased a little. They looked at the intruders like a lion at a sheep, and while this did little to remove the group, it did give them a little better understanding of the temper of these two, which seemed to only be ignited by one or the other. 

Duo, realizing the neccesity for peacemaking at this point, decided not to make snide comments, and spoke rather softly, even with a certain almost-paternal tint to his voice, which forced Wufei, Sally, and Hilde to shake even harder with repressed glee. 

"Well, well, what have we here? You know, these quarters ARE owned by preventer H.Q. It would be SUCH a shame if Lady Une found out about this."

Both of the siblings, while they knew that Duo was right, were in no condition to actually agree with anyone about anything. They both had unfinished business, and now they knew they would have to repair the shambles, or they would be demoted from Class A to Dish Washer. Fortunately, they would be able to fix most of it with some plaster, and buy new furniture with Heero's paychecks. It wasn't like Heero ever spent anything anyway, and had been working here for five years. He didn't know or really care what was in his account. He lived here, didn't pay rent, and the only thing he ever bought was gas for his motorcycle, on the rare occasion when he left H.Q. He ate at the cafeteria, and didn't exactly pay the bills. 

Wufei held back his laughter with the least exertion, his black eyes snapping with mirth, and a small smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. Sally was suddenly struck by a fit of coughing, witch required her to place her hand in front of her mouth, her eyes watering.

"Are you okay, Sally?" Duo asked, all innocence, no hint of the mischief she knew he took such delight in causing, and she nodded helplessly.

Hilde was making odd noises, caused by her valiant attempts not to laugh. She was openly shaking, leaning against the far wall, her quaking intensifying every time she glanced at the twins and their foul expressions. Her face was turning red, and she was wondering whether she would ever be able to draw breath again. She was considering letting the urges to simply let merriment run free overtake her; at least then her respiratory system wouldn't collapse.

"You know, I don't think either of you have realized how I knew you were here. You both know how long it takes for that strike to wear off, and you know I was here when you woke up. Do the math. I had to get these three, also. So, now that we all know I knew what you were doing, take a guess how."

Heero and Jai's faces grew stormier, and Duo had to wonder if what he was doing was smart. He figured, if he had to die, it was quicker to go with Heero's gun than most other methods.

"I see you know what I'm talking about. Good. And believe me, even if you do manage to find my personal copy, you have no idea how many copies I made, or where they are. Not to mention the fact that Lady Une would like nothing better than substantiated proof of what happened to this room if I tell her, so another brawl is out of the question."

With that, and one final glance that notified the two how much he had enjoyed this, the four merry cohorts turned and walked out of the room.

Wufei allowed a little of his enjoyment to show for a change, though he promised himself a good long laugh when he had the time and privacy to enjoy it. He let out a snicker, and clapped a companionable palm on Duo's shoulder.

"Duo, I have no idea whether I'm supposed to hate you or just dislike you. Almost at the same time, you've managed to be decrease my mental stability, and keep me sane at the same time. Though I must say I'm glad you've directed your immature pranks toward other persons. I got almost a full nights sleep yesterday."

"Don't worry, you'll get your turn." Duo promised solemnly, though the gleam in his eyes betrayed the tone of his voice.

"Alright, you two, we'd better get out of here while they get the evidence of their little scuffle cleaned up. They're likely to attack anything that moves, camera or no camera." Sally interjected.

Wufei and Duo just kind of stared at her for a couple of seconds, and then Duo said, "Get out of here? Like where?"

"Well, it's almost six o' clock. Maybe we could go to dinner? If we leave now, we could beat the evening rush." 

"Well, if it's dinner you're after, you could have just said so. My stomach is _talkin'._" Said Duo, rubbing his midsection. The four continued walking. "Where do we go, though? I don't think you had fast food in mind, so Drive-Thru is out of the question. I feel like Chinese. How about it?" He asked, glancing at the others. Sally and Hilde agreed enthusiastically, and Wufei simply gave a curt nod. "Well, Chinatown it is. We'll decide which restaurant from there. Everybody okay with that?" This once again received approval from the others, and Duo suggested they all get ready, and parted ways, Duo and Hilde down one hall off living quarters, and Wufei and Sally down another. 


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Half an hour later, the group met in the dimly lit parking garage on the west wing of the compound, Duo in black jeans, his black leather jacket, and his crimson shirt, standing next to his plain black motorcycle. Wufei was dressed primarily in black also, except that he had a white T-shirt on under his jacket, with an almost identical motorcycle at his side. The motorcycles offered a similar feeling to the Gundams for the pilots, and all of them, including Quatre, owned one, which they kept spotless and in excellent condition. The responsiveness was a characteristic they all enjoyed, as was the sense of speed. As the other two arrived, they commented on the macho factor of motorcycles, and black ones at that, were given helmets and boarded behind the two pilots. They sped out of the garage into the night, and headed for Chinatown.

Heero and Jai, however, were not so relaxed. They knew they'd been had by Duo, and were both honest enough to admit that they had deserved it, even if it wasn't any of his business. As they cleaned the room, they began talking, and reasoned out what had happened. Heero had given what he knew Quatre would think was unwittingly relevant information, which would not be blamed on Heero. Quatre would then, in his anger, stay away from Jai. He had not known his sister would either find out or care if she did. She had found out, and now he knew that feelings similar to the ones Quatre had experienced were now swimming around in Jai. Both wanted the other to be a little more than a friend, and Quatre did not know that Jai either knew how he felt or felt the same way. They'd get back at Duo later. Right now, they had to rebuild Quatre. Actually, first they had to rebuild this room, THEN they'd rebuild Quatre. Then they'd kill Duo. Quite an impressive list, fitting of trained assassins. 

Meanwhile, back on the highway, the passengers on the bikes were starting to forget to breathe. Duo and Wufei were shooting across the pavement at what Sally and Hilde were pretty sure was close to the speed of sound. They were gripping the pilot's midsections with about ten thousand pounds of pressure per square inch. There were small headsets in the helmets, so they could all talk to one another without difficulty.

"Would you guys ease up?!" Duo gasped, trying to breathe with Hilde's arms displacing his intestines. 

"If you'd stop driving so damn fast, I would! I'm sure as hell not letting go!" Hilde stated, tightening her arms as he swerved around another car.

"Ye gods, onna! Let me breathe! I can not drive if I can't see! And you're putting circles in front of my eyes!" Wufei exclaimed, as he followed Duo's lead.

"Are you going to stay like this once we stop?" asked Duo, the effort to speak present in his voice. "If you do, we won't be able to get you off with crowbars!" They pulled off on the next exit, and had to slow down, otherwise they'd have driven like maniacs straight into the waiting room of whatever restaurant they picked, probably on the highly discriminatory basis of whichever one they couldn't turn in time to avoid. 

As they got off the bikes in front of a small place Wufei frequented, Duo stood up and stretched. "I'll be hungry again once my stomach migrates back to where it's supposed to be. Damn, you're strong! Have you been working out or something?"

"YOUR stomach has to migrate? Mine is back at that last tollbooth, looking for correct change! I almost lost my lunch when you hit that goddamn speed bump at twenty-five miles an hour! You face death on a weekly basis, you don't need to get bucked off that damn bike and end up with your face stuck to the blacktop fifteen feet behind the rest of your body!"

Duo was able to meet Hilde's tantrum with a cool head, and even a certain amusement. Calmly, and somewhat contentedly, he said, "I only drive like that so you'll hold on tighter. It's cool enough when you're riding a black motorcycle, but when you've got a hot babe snuggled against your back with her arms around your midsection, that's another story." He smiled at her, and she let out a little bubble of laughter. A little arrogance combined with what she probably thought was an unintentional compliment always helped to calm her down when she was pissed, and he knew it.

"You have an answer for everything, don't you?"

"Yes I do. And I also know that Wufei agrees with me. Doesn't he?" Duo aimed a mischievous smile at Wufei and Sally, which Sally returned, being behind Wufei and out of his line of vision.

"Silence, baka. Now, let's go."

Wufei was trying to pretend not to notice that Sally, even after they got off the bike, was staying fairly close to him. And the odd thing was, he didn't mind. As they walked into the restaurant's waiting area, Duo with his arm around Hilde's shoulders, a young Chinese girl greeted them. 

"Welcome back, Chang-san." She said with a low bow. "Table for four? This way, please." She led them near the far corner of the restaurant, to a table with Chinese paintings and characters hanging on the walls around it, soothing music playing over the speakers that had been hidden somewhere. Sally understood why Wufei came here every so often. It was where he could relax and not be disturbed by anyone. The music and the atmosphere fitted Wufei's personality very well. When he was alone, anyway. Duo began filling them in on exactly what had happened between Heero and Jai, and the others very quickly figured out for themselves why Quatre had seemed so pissed for almost two months, not to mention that he had gotten like that almost upon arrival of Heero's sister. Everyone had expected some sort of dating scenario to play out, what with the big eyes Quatre had made at Jai when she had first been introduced to everyone. And that made it worse when Duo notified them that Jai was psychic, though she tried not to use it on friends. He told them about the fight, and said he would grace them each with a recording of it. He had more than enough of them, anyway.

They laughed over dinner, and complimented the quality of the food to the waitress, which further intensified her cheery smile. Once they were done eating and received the check, Duo snatched it before anyone else could think about it, and grinned.

"Well, after all, I am an honorable man. My treat. My dinner was the most expensive anyway."

"It was expensive because it was gargantuan. You may not know it, but what you ordered was the biggest meal on the menu." Wufei informed him, a hint of amusement lifting the corners of his mouth into a sardonic smile. 

"Yeah. How do you manage to stay the way you are? You don't work out as much as Heero does, and he eats a tenth of what you do. I bet if he ate what you just did, he'd bloat up and have to be rolled back to H.Q." Hilde commented.

"I do so work out. Just not as much or as obsessively as Heero does. That guy spends a minimum of two hours a day in the gym, especially now that he's training Relena, and at least another hour in the gun range. I pity the poor soul who ever has to tangle with HIM. I've managed to avoid being seriously pounded for almost seven years now, and I don't want to start now. I want to live to a ripe old age, and not be obliterated by a Heero signature deathblow. I'd wind up in the casket in about five pieces."

The rest of the group was quietly snickering at Duo, and he joined them. 

Wufei let out a small snort, and addressed Duo. "You want to live you want to live long enough to become decrepit, huh? Sitting in your big chair, your braid trailing twelve feet behind you, and laughing with borderline idiocy at these humiliating discs you've managed to procure? Are you insane? If you keep this up, you won't make it another year. I would not be surprised at all if those two murderous little demons have installed deathtraps in your room. Or at the very least, changed the locks on your door. I don't know if you noticed, but those two were VERY pissed off. I'd try to avoid them for a while, and hope they don't hold a grudge. We all know I would."

Sally snorted, ad gave him a shove, and he glared at her. "We all know that you hold a grudge. It's one of your paramount qualities." She added sarcastically, and he glared harder. At that, she kicked his leg under the table.

"Ow! Baka onna, do NOT kick me! You can just as well walk back to H.Q., and if you hurry, you may be back by five A.M. "

"Oh, please. Like I actually WANT to sit behind a hyperactive speed demon like you. Besides, we all want to watch that tape Duo…stole."

"Ah, yes, of course. That will be amusing, if it's half as good as the last one. Well, we've screwed around enough here. We should be getting back. Let's go." They left the tip, and walked out to the bikes while Duo took care of the check. When he got back, he hopped on, and Hilde sat behind him.

"Duo, you want to keep the speedometer below ninety this time? Like, maybe obey the speed limit? You're gonna get us pulled ooOOOOO!" Hilde called out as Duo took off like a bat out of hell, Wufei and sally not far behind. 

Back on the interstate, they began their dance with slower vehicles again, Wufei and Duo having agreed to a little contest as to who could reach H.Q. first. Sally and Hilde repeatedly told them to slow down or they were going to knock them out, sling them over the back seats, and drive back to H.Q. at a reasonable speed, such as eighty, as opposed to one twenty. The men knew they were bluffing, though, inasmuch as they both knew that they could no more let go of their waists than they could grow two heads. Wufei pulled ahead and laughed when Duo attempted to drive on the median, and suddenly found the he could no longer draw breath around two very strong forearms under his ribs, forcing him to get back on the road so he could make practical use of his respiratory system again, but sped up and caught up to Wufei again, staying virtually neck in neck. They wove through traffic, and eventually made it back to H.Q. in one piece, Wufei about ten feet ahead of Duo, and both of them going about as fast as they dared into a closed area.

Wufei parked his bike, and Duo did the same about three seconds later. Wufei got off his bike, and helped Sally off the back. Hilde, once Duo allowed the bike to stop all the way, jumped off, yanked off her helmet, and whacked Duo upside the back of his head with it. Fortunately, for Duo, anyway, he still had HIS helmet on, so the only thing that did was knock the face guard into the handlebars. Wufei snorted back a laugh when Duo objected, in the form of falling the rest of the way off his bike. He got up quickly, and pulled his helmet off.

"Don't worry, Hilde. He does not seem to have any physical injury, and as we all know, he has no pride, so you didn't hurt anything." And with that, Wufei and Sally walked off to the elevator to the higher floors, where the living quarters were. 

Hilde gave Duo a nasty look, and said " Duo, is there even a speedometer on that thing, or are you blind? You're going to get us both killed! What is that damn thing's top speed, three hundred? And I know you aren't going to listen to a word I say, so just let me rave for a minute!"

She did so, and continued as Duo walked up to her and began to guide her in the direction that Sally and Wufei had gone a minute earlier. Well used to the rages of the others in the building, he was able to regard her with a certain amusement and patiance. He pulled her into the elevator, and pushed the button while she yelled at him and likened him in a highly vulgar manner to very unflattering farm animals. 

She had calmed down to the point where she was still insulting him, though much more quietly and not so enthusiastically, by the time that they had gotten to the living quarters. When they got to Duo's quarters, which were closer en route to Hilde's, Duo tried to turn the knob, and discovered that the door was locked. He got out his keycard, and to his surprise, the lock would not respond.

"How the hell did those little wackos manage to change my lock and clean that disaster area in under three hours?" Duo asked, to no one in particular. Though he had, in the back of his mind, somehow suspected this, he had not believed it himself. It was hard to swallow that Heero and Jai had done two, hopefully ONLY two, fairly large things in a very short time. 

"What the fuck? Hey uh….Hilde, do you think I could stay in your quarters tonight? I can get this fixed tomorrow, but aside from breaking down the door, which would be kind of counterproductive, I can't really do much about it right now." He said, gesturing toward the innocent looking lock.

Hilde looked at him with a rather enigmatical smile on her face, and that somehow unsettled him. He had never seen Hilde with quite that look on her face, and he wasn't sure he liked it. 

Hilde looked at him for a couple more seconds, and then rolled her eyes at him and turned toward her quarters, gesturing for him to follow.

"Well, thank you. To what do I owe this change of heart?"

Hilde gave him another look he hadn't seen before, and he began to wonder how many of those things she had. And how many of them could make him uncomfortable like this. 

When they arrived at Hilde's, she opened the door, and walked in. He followed, and closed the door behind him. 

"I have to go change. Get that disc ready, I'm dying to see how those two destroyed that room." Hilde said, and walked into her bedroom, closing the door with a soft click. Duo watched the doorway for a couple of seconds, thinking. He decided to get the disc ready, and wait. He produced on of the several he had stowed about his person, and slid it into the slot. He had at least five dozen discs hidden around and inside the building, mostly in places where you wouldn't think there COULD be places. Like inside a tree, for example. He sat back, and picked up the remote for the player.

Hilde came out a short time later, and was dressed in a more casual outfit, consisting of a pair of jeans and a lavender shirt. He saw her come out, and waved her over. She sat down and said "Well, let's see this tape. It doesn't have to be much for YOU to think it's hysterical, but Heero and Jai seemed to be trying to kill you with thoughts, so it has to be pretty big." 

Duo obliged her, and pushed the button. It started with Jai coming through Heero's door while he was working on his laptop, and she crunched the back legs off his chair, and it all went downhill after that. It was hard to even keep up with it, though it WAS funny. She was trying to hold it in for a while, but that soon proved futile. It was almost impossible to not laugh while watching two people try in vain to kill each other, flying through the air, and crashing to the ground, and stomping through floors, and punching through walls, and so on and so on.

When it was done, the pair were both trying to catch their breath, and it was almost midnight, considering that they had watched it almost eighteen times, slow motion, instant replay, pause, and all the nice little functions. 

Hilde wiped tears from her eyes, and said "Oh, I HAVE to get a copy of that." Duo immediately held up another disc, and handed it to her.

"Here. I've got like ten more, just on ME. I've got more, but I wouldn't be surprised if they have this room bugged, so I'm not going to tell you where the rest of them are right now. They're probably ransacking my room right now, so that gets rid of four or five discs, except for the ones I KNOW they won't find." Hilde took the disc, and looked at it for a couple of seconds, before setting it on the armrest. 

"We ought to go to bed. It's like twelve o'clock." Hilde said, and got up, walked to the hallway and opened a cabinet. She pulled a thin blanket out of it, and handed it to Duo.

"Well, which side of the bed do you want?" Duo asked, and made as innocent face as he could as he waited for the almost impossibly certain answer.

"You're sleeping on the couch, and you know it. Here." She handed him the blanket, as he made a mockingly disappointed noise, and proceeded to spread the blanket over the couch. "You're getting up when I do tomorrow, so get some sleep. You have about eight hours." She turned around, and headed back toward her room. Duo went back to making his "bed" when he heard Hilde say his name, very softly, and he turned to her. She was leaning against the doorframe, and said, just as softly, "Goodnight." Duo smiled warmly at her, and she returned it, before turning back to her room, and closing the door. Duo watched her door for another couple of seconds, and then flopped down on the couch.

He thought about what had just happened, and came to a conclusion. There had been almost a genuine tenderness in her voice when she had said that, and while she couldn't very well have refused his request to stay here for the night, she hadn't had to be so pleasant about it. She could have at least feigned resentment, but had not. That led to one major, sensible conclusion. He, naturally, liked her as at least a little more than a friend, as most men seem to from the beginning of any sort of relationship, casual or not. But he had not really known up until that moment that she did, too. That was an…..ODD feeling, though it somehow put him even more at ease than he already was, considering that he knew Heero and Jai would not attempt murder where there were innocent bystanders. Even so, he would have to tread carefully the next couple of days, or he would be in some DEEP crap, and he was already in pretty deep. Oh, well, he had to get some sleep. He, as Hilde said, had to get up pretty early tomorrow. He had…._things _to do. He grinned to himself, and floated off to his subconscious. 


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Chapter 8

When Hilde woke up the next morning, she lied abed for awhile, and thought about the previous night. She really had no logical reason for her behavior, though at the time, it had seemed the right thing to do. She sighed, and got up. She got dressed, and went out to wake Duo up. When she reached the living room, she looked around and noticed Duo was nowhere to be seen. The blanket was even folded and slung over the back of the couch. While she examined the room and puzzled over where he could be, she noticed a pleasant aroma emanating from the kitchen. There, on the kitchen table, was a spread of food, obviously intended to be her breakfast. Bacon, eggs, juice, and only one place set. He apparently was not going to be joining her, she thought, as she was abruptly struck by the fact that Duo had made her breakfast. It had not quite clicked until that moment, and she felt like smacking her forehead. Where had he gotten to, anyway? 

After she had finished and thoroughly enjoyed her meal, especially because no one here voluntarily ate food from the cafeteria, AND had not had to cook it herself, she prepared to go down to the gym and do her stretches and training. Duo was almost certainly down there already, and he had been training her the same way, though slightly less vigorously, that Heero had been training Relena. She heard a knock at the door, and went to open it. She stopped when she saw that Duo had already let himself in, and had closed the door behind him. 

"Uh, Hi. Thanks for breakfast, by the way." Hilde greeted him, and he walked toward her.

"You slept in. I didn't think I'd have that much time to go out." Duo said, smiling widely, and continued as he walked closer to her, " Hey, Hilde, Close your eyes."

Hilde obliged him, a sly smile on her face, and said "Now what? You want me to open my mouth?"

"No. Now you open them back up."

Hilde hid disappointment, but gasped when she opened her eyes. She beheld a stunning jeweled gold necklace; each flat link set with a small sapphire, and a large, intricately carved piece of amethyst dangling from it. The jewel was engraved to look like a swirling sunburst, and matched Duo's eyes, even as the sapphire matched hers. She realized that was the intent, and was speechless. 

Duo smiled at the look on her face, and fastened the clasp around her neck. It appeared as if her slender throat was encircled by blue fire, spawned from the violet sunburst. Hilde's hands went to her mouth, and her eyes glittered. She supposed that the hints she had dropped last night hit home, and reached up, pulling him down for a kiss.

Someone had knocked on the door for about two minutes before either of them even heard it through their haze of passion, and at least another minute before they decided to answer it. Duo finally went to open it and Relena stood there, a slightly confused look on her face. When she saw Duo, her eyebrows shot up, and she stared at him for a couple of seconds. 

"Is Hilde here?" she said at last.

"Yeah. I was just leaving, anyway. Go on in." He motioned inward, and she walked past him into the living room, while he walked into the hall and went down to the gym to get ready for their daily training session.

"What was he doing here this early?"

"Well, he slept here last night."

"You didn't!"

"No! Geez! He slept on the couch! Heero and Jai locked him out of his quarters last night, and he needed a place to stay until he could change the lock again. At any rate, he made me breakfast and was gone before I got up. I was just getting ready to go down to the gym, for our training session, when he came back in and surprised me with THIS." She fingered the necklace Duo had given her, and Relena's eyes widened. Then she smiled.

"He finally caught on, huh?"

"With a vengeance. The colors match our eyes."

Relena's smile widened, and studied the jeweled chain Duo had given Hilde, tracing the sunburst pattern with one finger. 

"Amethyst and sapphire, huh? He apparently knows one hell of a jeweler. And probably spent a year's salary on it, too. Anyway, what were you saying about Heero and Jai? Heero seemed a little distracted during our session this morning, and Jai had the most god-awful look on her face, added to the fact that both of them were beating the crap out of a pair of punching bags this morning when I got down there. What did Duo do this time?"

Hilde sighed, and turned to the disc player, gesturing for Relena to follow. Before she showed her the disc, Hilde filled Relena in on the events of the last few months that had, until now, not been any of her concern.

"Why, that devious little sucker. I knew he was smart, but this is like…oh, I don't know. I'd like to know how he managed to get that information in Quatre's head without him realizing it was intentional."

"I don't know, but apparently, it worked. Quatre's been avoiding Jai like she has the plague, and that is not the best way to make a girl feel wanted. She knows about it now, though, and my guess is that the both of them will be trying to patch things up. Heero will be able to put his considerable talents to good use."

All at once, the P.A. came on, and Jai's voice echoed through the hall Duo was walking down.

"All Gundam pilots, report to the mobile suit hangar. The updates to your Gundams have been completed."

Excitement and fear combated in Duo's moderately paranoid mind, and curiosity finally won out. Everyone would be there, so he doubted they would do anything more severe than try to humiliate him. He could stand that. He caught a glimpse of Trowa striding down the hall, and kicked it up a gear to catch up. 

"Hello, Duo." He said, without bothering to look back, and using the same tone of voice he always did.

"Do you practice that or something? I could find out what note that is, and it would be impossible to tell you from me, once I figure what key that is. Like F, or something."

They reached the elevator, and both stepped in, Trowa leaning against the far wall and Duo pushing the button for the floor the hangar was on. Trowa, knowing that the best course of action when trapped in an enclosed space with Duo was to simply ignore him, looked almost comatose and Duo thought he looked like he was about pass out.

When they reached the hangar, Duo veritably danced out, and Trowa walked in his characteristic not-in-any-big-hurry way down to the area where the Gundams were maintained. Heero was already up on the catwalk, as were Jai and Quatre. Wufei and Sally were just now arriving from the other lift, and were walking in their direction.

"All right, The modifications are completed. They are now capable of engaging a far greater number of suits at one time. Each one could conceivably eliminate Fifty suits in under two minutes. The extra energy output has been compensated for by the installment of much more powerful generators, while they are virtually the exact same size and weight." 

The murmurs from among the pilots suggested approval, and Jai continued. "Now, first, the Deathscythe." This statement carried a slight sinister undertone that no one either heard or understood but Duo, and he swallowed. " The active cloak has been upgraded to be functional at all times, not just when the wings are closed, and the entire suit is now capable of becoming completely invisible not only to radar and sonar, but to infrared, ultraviolet, and any other type of light detection. You will be completely invisible, undetectable, at any time you see fit. This was designed for battle. The new vernier boosters make the suit a full one third faster than it was before."

Duo could barely contain himself. He had half expected his suit to have been stripped down to it's component parts during the night, and he couldn't have hoped for an upgrade any better than these.

"Next, the Heavyarms. The ammunition will no longer be a problem, inasmuch as the suit no longer fires ordinary bullets. The missiles can all be fired independently, one by one if you wish, and all have homing capability. Every weapon aside from the missiles on this suit now fires energy charges, comparable in size to a bullet with the same rate of fire. The main difference is the power behind them. Each charge is up to five times as powerful as a normal bullet. Each weapon has it's own individual power source, allowing for extended battle. The generators will last almost indefinitely in even a prolonged fight. For a close range attacker, each arm is equipped with a thermal wrist blade."

Trowa's eyes shone, though he gave no other physical accompaniment to his approval than a curt nod.

"On to the Sandrock. The heat shotels are now capable of being used as boomerangs, and can be thrown individually. If they are thrown, they will track the target and swing back to the suit's hands. It is also now equipped with seismic grenades, launched from any of six cannons located at strategic points around the suit's body. These, to prevent the need for reloading, are also basically explosive energy. The grenades will cast powerful vibrations strong enough to rattle an enemy suit completely to pieces if it is in range of the detonation."

Quatre gave a small bow, and smiled.

"The Altron. The suit has been modified to, in addition to the flame-throwers, be able to fire long range explosive incendiaries. These will detonate either on contact with an enemy suit or under on of two other circumstances. When the remote is triggered, the bomb will explode. It will only travel a certain distance, and then detonate. The distance can be set from the cockpit. The bombs, after they explode, will continue to burn, suit or no, for ten minutes in a ball of fire three hundred feet in diameter. The tail laser is able to be set to fire only on specific suits, and then will be able to operate independently of the pilot."

Wufei gave a nod of thanks, and graced Jai with a smile. 

"And last, the Wing Zero. The beam cannon has been modified to be able to fire low power blasts a well as high power, and can be used at the same time as the beam sabers. Smaller cannons have been installed around the suit, a total of ten, each with it's own power generator. These will be able to either be aimed by the pilot, or operate on their own. Each has a different range of fire, though all can be fired at the same time while sweeping across their respective target areas in the middle of a fray." 

The muffled conversation between the pilots turned to a mad scramble to get to their ripcords and get in the gundams, and an amused Hilde and Relena stood at the entrance to the huge hangar, exchanging amused glances.

"Boys and their toys." Hilde said, even as Duo, who had apparently reached his cockpit and the new control scheme, shouted a somewhat stifled "Cool!" igniting snickers from the other four gundams.

"Don't forget, Jai's up there, too. And while she didn't say anything, I'll bet you anything she made at least a minor modification to Starfire. She's as much one of them as if she WERE a guy. I like her, though."

"Speaking of which, did you notice those little glances Quatre kept sneaking at Jai? He's an empath, too, and Jai was probably purposely radiating a couple of encouraging signals."

"I wouldn't put anything past either her or Heero. Quatre at least seems to be a little more receptive to those "signals" than Duo."

"ANYTHING's more receptive than Duo. Any normal human, anyway. Maybe even a reasonably bright jellyfish."

Relena let out a giggle, and covered her mouth with her hand. She knew what Hilde's feelings for Duo were, and could understand them. They were both jokers, and would be until the day they died. 

"Has Heero caught on yet?"

Relena started a bit at the sudden mention of Heero, and cursed herself. "Well, if he has, he's hiding it very well. I think he knows though, and is trying to pretend he doesn't. I mean, I was dropping some heavy-duty stuff on him this morning, and it almost seems like he didn't hear it. It just rolls off him. I can understand that to a point, but it's getting ridiculous. I mean, in the last five years he's been here, More girls have been hitting on HIM than any of the others. Yes, I've heard the stories. He's not stupid, by any means. He knows what's going on." Relena cast a resentful glance at Wing Zero, and said, "You know, ever since the day he met me, He's been like my guardian angel. I'd be dead five times over if it weren't for him. Hell, his gundam even LOOKS like an angel."

"Well, look at it this way. He's not going anywhere, and you've got plenty of time to…..well, land the catch. He's already hooked, and he knows it. Otherwise he wouldn't have been quite so upset when Duo made that tape of you two in the gym. I suppose Duo gave you a copy, too? After Heero tackled him to the ground at twenty miles an hour and yanked the film out of the camera?"

Relena laughed silently for a moment in quiet remembrance of that little present, and leaned against the wall. She promised herself another good viewing when she got back to her quarters, and sighed. Heero either didn't want her, or he did and didn't know it, or did and didn't want to. It was possible he did and knew it, but didn't know how to let her know. He was very complex for someone who always made sure everyone knew exactly what he meant.

Hilde saw the look in her eyes. "You know, my shameless boyfriend wouldn't mind planting a seed of his own. He's pretty devious when it suits him."

Relena looked at her. "What do you mean?" She really didn't know what Hilde meant, but suspected she'd find out soon.

"See ya." Hilde walked back down the corridor, mischief glinting in her eyes as she looked at Relena over her shoulder, and waved. 

Relena watched Hilde go, and stared at the door where Hilde had exited. She blinked, once, twice, at the door, and then turned to the wall in front of her, enveloped by her own thoughts. Those two were entirely too smart for their own good. You wouldn't know it until you had known them for a while, but they were, and living near these people was making her paranoid. They could barely go two days without pranking each other. She had never seen people so restless, and she supposed that they should be. Keeps them on their toes. Though she doubted that they saw it that way, it was probably the cause. You live with people for so long, you start to know them too well, and you know what irks them. She sighed again, and with one last, lingering glance toward the angelic guardian Heero controlled, turned and left the hangar.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Hilde managed the scrap yard she owned through her room's laptop, or from the Preventer base's large section of offices, and the business was going well. The suits that had been destroyed five years ago were still flowing in, being scrapped, and shipped out and sold as spare parts to any number of things. She had noticed something lately, though. Many of the gundamium suits that had been destroyed in their last battle that had been sent to her scrap yard to be stripped down and decommissioned. These were smelted, a lot of the time, and converted back into raw gundamium ore. This was usually purchased for a staggering price by the government agencies that funded and supplied the preventers. The gundamium was used as spare parts and body pieces made for use by the gundams, should they be damaged in combat. The agencies had of late however, been outbid by several private organizations, which had then in turn been shipped very large quantities of the hyper tough metal. The quantities were much larger than anyone would need, unless they were stockpiling it. She investigated this further, becoming suspicious, and was blocked eventually. There were a minimum of ten separate companies buying the material, and only two of them were on the same colony. Several of them were stationed on Earth, too. 

Hilde shut down the laptop, figuring this was something the rest of them should know about. She left her rooms and headed for the section of the office block that the Duo and the other pilots used as their private base, mostly hanging around and arguing with each other. Heero, Trowa and Quatre were the only three that you could really count on to be doing something, Duo and Wufei were usually caught up in bothering each other, Wufei threatening Duo and Duo laughing at him.

She had to smile, thinking that most of them actually had what they wanted. Even Trowa, who had softened a bit since the wars ended and he acquired friends, joined in conversation sometimes. He still had his job at the circus, as did Catherine, and she came to visit him and vice versa. He still had his trailer there, and performed with her in the main act. They were the star attraction, unusual for a clown. She supposed it helped to draw a little more of a crowd, though it was mostly female, that he performed with no shirt on. He was absolutely chiseled, like the rest of the pilots. Duo himself felt like living marble wrapped in silk, and had at fifteen when she met him. Six years had put more weight to the muscles, and while he was by no means bulging out of his clothes, every muscle was covered with nothing but skin, sharply defined, well toned….._'Jesus, listen to me,'_ she thought as she shook her head, trying to clear her mind. Oh, well. He was hers, now, not a distant, unattainable goal.

Heero seemed to have developed some sense of humor, and that helped being around him. He didn't seem as much the unstoppable war machine, and she was beginning to see what Relena did in him, but wondered at how in the hell she had known so long ago. Heero was…..well, the perfect soldier, and she was the princess of a pacifist nation. Odd combination, anyone had to admit. 

Even before she had gotten to the doorway, she could hear the beginnings of a heated argument. 

"What the fuck did you do to my computer? I am going to KILL you, Maxwell!"

"Oh, come on! Can't you take a joke? I told you you'd get your turn!"

"Where the hell did you even GET that picture, you insolent little bastard?!"

"I just bet you'd pay to find out, wouldn't you?"

Hilde entered the room, and saw Wufei typing furiously at his laptop, a very pissed look on his face, and Duo, across the room, leaning way back in his chair and laughing as hard as he could at the chinese pilot. The room was set up in a circle, Wufei's desk the first on the left when you walked in, then Heero's, then Quatre's, then Jai's, then Trowa's, and finally Duo's, which was on your right when you entered the room. There was a large conference table in the center of the large room, separating the pilots.

She walked over to Wufei, who was trying desperately to get something off the screen, to no avail. The image on the screen was of a half naked woman with Sally's face very convincingly superimposed on it. Hilde stifled a giggle, and watched for a moment. Wufei was able to remove the image for a moment, but the instant he hit another key, there it was again, smiling back at him.

"FUCK!" Wufei shouted, as he slammed his fist on his desk, almost knocking over his teacup, which rattled and settled back onto the saucer. 

Hilde heard a small gasp of repressed giggles come from Jai's direction, but it was drowned out by Duo's hysterical howling. He was now face down on his desk, his head buried in his arms, shaking like he was being electrocuted. All the other pilots were either staring at Duo, laughing with him, or listening to everyone while pretending to work. Quatre's lips were pressed firmly together, holding back gasps of amusement, and his face was turning red. Trowa had turned his chair around, and was watching Wufei with a hint of enjoyment tugging at his mouth. Heero, his fingers still on the keys, was looking over his shoulder at Duo with one eyebrow raised.

Jai was simply watching the both of them, a wide smile on her face, her left leg crossed over the right. She was wearing a pair of jeans, and white shirt, and a thin blue jacket. She eventually went back, presumably, to work, and about five minutes later, the image on Wufei's computer was gone, replaced with a small message. It read,

__

"Well, there you go. Good having a second hacker around, huh? Signed, Jai." 

Wufei read the message, his eyes widening, and then his eyebrows shot up, his expression darkened slightly, and he turned in his chair to Jai, who was already looking at him. She smiled sweetly, and went back to work. 

"Hey!" Duo exclaimed, and looked at Jai. "Ruin my fun." He mumbled, as he turned and went back to typing.

"Don't think you've gotten away with this, baka. I WILL have retribution." 

Duo just laughed, and kept working. Everybody had gone back to their laptops, and started typing again. Just then, Hilde remembered why she had come here. "Hey, guys. Something you ought to know." She drew all eyes, and took a seat at the head of the conference table. All of the pilots turned in their chairs, and wheeled them over to the table. 

Hilde put her hands flat on the table in front of her, and spoke. "Well, you all know that the dolls you've been fighting recently are made of gundamium. Many of those suits were sent to my scrap yard, and I've been getting rich off you guys." She smiled, and continued. "Most of these suits are stripped and melted down, and the gundamium is sold at a horrific price. Almost all of it, until recently, was bought by the preventers agency. Now, however, it is being bought at higher prices by a number of private organizations." 

The pilots looked at her intently, as they each thought about the implications of this.

"Well, first off, this is bad." Said Jai, in an oddly calm voice, almost amused.

Heero nodded, as he had come to the same conclusion. "Are there any buyers on Earth?"

Hilde thought for a moment, and nodded. "Two or three, I think."

"Well, this is starting to smell bad. Gundamium can only be processed in space. And unless every one of these people is building his own private mega shuttle, there's something wrong here. Gundamium is way too expensive, even in small quantities, and nobody buys it to build a bridge or something." Duo said, obviously getting into battle mode.

"We can expect another battle soon, at any rate. If they are still buying the material, they are still building the suits they've been sending after us. I doubt they will have any more than last time. All they are doing is buying back what we destroy." Heero stated, and everyone nodded.

"Inform Lady Une, and have Zechs ready for backup. Have all satellites on full alert, we want to be ready for them. Tell Lady Une we have reason to believe another attack is on the way, she'll take care of the rest." Jai said, and Quatre started out the door toward their commander's office. 

Jai started again, sounding amused. "You know, they may just give up eventually. If they can't beat us even after we hand them the supplies to do it with….."

"Hilde, transfer the names of those companies to my computer when you get the chance. I need to do some research." Heero said, and walked out of the room toward the living quarters.

Duo watched him go, and said, "Well, they can't be building these things too fast, or they'd have attacked sooner last time. I imagine we've got a while before they attack again."

They all discussed this for a while, and eventually Trowa had to leave to get ready for his performance. He excused himself, and left. 

When the meeting was over, Duo and Hilde left the room together, and walked down the hall, chatting.

"Hey, Hilde, what do you say to the circus tonight? I saw a commercial on TV last night, and it said there's a new twist to the act. Knowing Trowa, It should be pretty cool."

"Are you asking me out?" Hilde asked teasingly, and eyed him.

Duo pretended to think about if for a moment, and then said, with absolute confidence, "Yes. I am."

"Alright, then." She said, smiling. "I'll meet you in the parking garage in about half an hour. I have to send that stuff to Heero, too. See ya!" she said, and hurried into her quarters.

The crowd was on its feet as the pair stepped into the spotlight. Catherine in her usual shades of dark pink, and Trowa was dressed in a pair of baggy clown pants, oversized red shoes, and a mask that covered half of his face.

"Why does he wear that thing?" Duo asked Hilde, in between mouthfuls of popcorn. "It's not like you can ever see that side of his face anyway." 

Hilde smiled at the remark as she watched the act. First, a little tumbling by Trowa, who ran toward a pole that was maybe three inches in width and about seven feet up, leapt, and landed on one hand, the other held out beside him, upside down on the pole. He brought his body down slowly, and then launched himself straight up with one arm, landing on one foot on the same pole.

"How does he DO that? Hilde asked. Duo laughed, and shrugged.

The conversation halted as Trowa jumped straight up again, turning two backward flips in mid air before landing back on the pole.

Duo laughed again, and clapped. Hilde joined in for a moment. Then, Trowa leapt into the air, and turned six rotations during the course of three flips on the way down, landed softly, and bowed. The crowd roared in applause, and Duo and Hilde joined. The next act was about to begin, and the audience quieted down.

Catherine stood about forty feet from Trowa, who was up against a large target. Not tied, just standing there. The first knife was thrown, and as usual, Trowa didn't even flinch. The next time, two knives were thrown. Same result. It kept going until Catherine had three knives in each hand, and threw them all in about one second. The muffled "thunk" sounds resounded, six in a second, and all of them impacted a hair's length from Trowa.

The knives were removed, and handed back to Catherine. Trowa walked away from the target unscathed. 

"Now how in the hell did he not just jump and run? I wouldn't be able to last past the first knife."

"Yeah."

The ringmaster stepped into the spotlight, and called out, "For the next act, our stars will need a volunteer! Who has the courage to step down?"

The audience was quiet, and Duo looked at Hilde, who realized what he was thinking. 'NO!' she mouthed, and he snickered and stood up, and started down the stairs. 

The crowd cheered, and Hilde silently cursed men in general and Duo in particular. Arrogant, pig headed and over confidant. And hers, she reminded herself, starting to smile again. 'He'd better get back here in one piece, so I can take him apart.' She thought.

Duo reached the center ring, and Trowa's visible eye widened a bit. Catherine recognized him, too, and started, then smiled. Catherine positioned him in front of the target, and strapped him to it. Trowa stood at his side, his arms crossed. Duo was wondering just what the hell was going to happen. Everyone already knew that Cathy's aim was too good to actually HIT him.

The ringleader addressed the crowd again. "The lovely Catherine will launch six, count em'! SIX knives directly at this brave soul! She will not aim to miss! His only hope will be Trowa Barton, his guardian!"

__

'WHAT?' thought Duo. _'She will not miss? No way!'_

The drum roll started, and Catherine took aim. Duo started to sweat, and wondered how the hell Trowa was going to protect him. Catherine suddenly struck, and the knives whizzed toward him. Duo had about enough time to think _'Oh shit.'_ Before Trowa, standing perfectly still beside him, appeared in front of him, and with two swift motions, snatched the knives out of the air, spun, and whipped the knives back at Catherine. Six knives landed in a row two inches from her feet, side by side, all at the same angle. 

The crowd roared, and Duo was beginning to wonder whether or not his heart was going to start again. Trowa bowed, and then stepped behind Duo to untie him. Duo's eyes were still locked in the "open" position, and he almost seemed to be in shock. He was stiff as a board, too, even after Trowa had untied him. He walked back up the steps in the same strange, robotic fashion, and plopped bonelessly back down in his seat while Hilde giggled at him.

After a few seconds, the Humor Cortex in Duo's brain won out over the Fear Lobe, and he burst out laughing, hunched over, his braid dangling over his shoulder, and quivered.

He was snapped out of his reverie by a hard slap on the back of the head, and looked at Hilde, all innocence.

"Don't give me that look. You know exactly what that was for. Eventually it'll turn into a punch, and we'll see how much innocence you can project with a black eye."

Duo had to smile at the thought of that.

"Nothing gets to you, does it? I just threatened to knock you out, and you look like just heard that Wufei had been caught streaking."

This time he did laugh, as that picture formed in his mind. He regained his composure with some effort, and said, "Nope. You oughtta know that by now." 

Trowa and Catherine went to their trailers to change, while Duo and Hilde waited for them. While this WAS a nice circus, it really wasn't a place you could just sit and talk, so all four of them would be heading for H.Q. In about half an hour, they were all dressed and heading back, Hilde riding with Duo on his motorcycle, and Catherine riding with Trowa in his black van. He preferred large vehicles, though they still had to handle well, and since he had been, and still was, a gundam pilot, he had beefed up this van to the point where it was one hell of a ride. It had all sorts of equipment in the back, too, and was often used by the pilots when constant surveillance and immediate action was needed. When they were not pilots, they were a virtual bounty hunting team. The word "relax" was not really in their vocabulary. Even Duo, who complained and made wisecracks the entire time, did NOT like to be bored. There had not been one person yet they hadn't been able to catch once they set their sights on him. 

Once they reached the garage, and met up there, they all just kind of laughed their way down to the living quarters. Except Trowa, of course who just kind of joined the conversation occasionally, though he was smiling a bit. Duo didn't think he'd ever really seen Trowa…cheerful. He'd been content, but never really happy unless he was with Catherine. Helps to have at least one person that's a little more than a friend in the world. He looked sidelong at Hilde, and realized that he knew that personally. He gave himself another smile, drawing Hilde's attention, and she gave him that odd enigmatic smile again. He wondered if he would ever find out what the hell that look meant.

Hilde spoke. "Hey, Catherine, where are you staying tonight?" 

Duo had a sudden, though pleasant, premonition as Cathy spoke. "Oh! Um….."

Hilde smiled. "I thought so. You can stay in my quarters."

Cathy raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"

Trowa did the same, though he was a little quicker on the uptake. He gave Duo a look, and headed into his quarters with Catherine. Have a lot of catching up to do, she supposed. He recognized that look, too.

Duo and Hilde continued toward his quarters, and encountered no one. Hilde headed off toward her quarters to take a shower and get some things before Catherine took over for the night, and Duo headed in to make some normal food. Cotton candy was great, but it left one strangely unsatisfied. He slid his key card into the slot, and opened the door. He wasn't worried about traps set by Heero, as he would be in little evidence for a couple of days while he deciphered the info Hilde had sent to his rooms. He flipped the light on, and walked toward the kitchen. All of a sudden, he tripped, and fell. At least that's what it felt like to him. The carpet under him was…draining into the floor! With him in it! In about half a second, he was jammed by his shoulders in the floor, the only mobility he had was the ability to move his neck, and his fingers, and his wrists to some extent. He really had no idea that this had happened until he realized his chin was about half an inch from the floor. His arms were folded, so they looked sort of like praying mantis arms. The rest of his body, from the shoulders down, was entrapped in the carpet, dangling into whatever room was below his.

"I'll get him for this." No matter how hard he tried, he could not move anything more than his wrists and fingers. He would have to wait until Hilde got there. Good thing the door was still open. Damn Wufei, he thought as he tried once again to get himself free, but no such luck. Wufei had measured this hole pretty well, and his shoulders were wedged tight, with his hands stuck in front of him, about two inches from his chest. The only semi productive thing he could do was make a weak clap. Oh well, he thought. Might as well make the most of it. This is only temporary, after all. He began clapping a tune with the limited motion available in his wrists, and waited.

Hilde had finished her shower, and began drying herself while she thought. First off, Duo was an ass. But, he was also a generous, funny, smart, strong, and extremely good looking guy. That kind of outweighed the fact that he was an ass. Ironically, it was his ass that was helping Duo's influence in her mind. She smiled at the thought, even as others along the same vein invaded her mind. _'I wonder why I'm even doing this. I know I'm in love with him. It helps that he's not a pockmarked, cross eyed hunchback, of course, but….' _ She just hoped that he was as much hers as she was his.

She was now dressed, and headed back to Duo's quarters. He was undoubtedly done with whatever he was doing by now, and they were going to be up quite late with whatever he had planned, she would bet on it. The door was still open a crack, and she pushed it open, stepped in, and closed it behind her. Only then did she notice that an area of the carpet fifteen feet in diameter had been cut in a circular shape, and that what appeared to be a hairy snake eating a basketball was in the center of it, looking like it had been sucked in the floor. There was an odd noise, almost a slap emanating from it, set to a tune.

"Hilde? Is that you? If it's anyone else, get out of here and forget whatever you may have seen." Said the snake.

"Duo?! What the….hell..?" she said, realizing what was going on, and starting to giggle. She walked around to the front of him, and saw that he was waving his hands at her, an almost pleading gesture, which only served to make her laugh harder.

"Hilde, I know this is funny, and I'll laugh with you AFTER you get me the hell out of here." He said, looking like some sort of insect waving it's legs at her from the ground. "Now, PLEASE get me out of this damn hole."

Hilde walked back around behind him, and knelt, grabbing each shoulder with one hand and pulled up. He moved, but just barely. Another hard yank, and he was coming loose, and one more hard pull, and he was free enough to get his arms out and hoist himself the rest of the way out.

"I'll get him for this. He sawed a HOLE in my damn FLOOR." He'd been stuck there for forty five minutes, and he stripped off his shirt to survey whatever damage had been done. As he thought, there were scrape marks and brush burns on the sides of his arms, and deep red indents where he'd been wedged in the ground. Bastard. He thought he'd gotten it bad with the stupid computer virus. There were things he could do that Jai couldn't fix, he though, with a sinister smile crossing his face, as Hilde watched him.

Hilde had never seen Duo without a shirt on, and the view was stunning. He was not without his share of scars, but they added to the personality of the flesh. His chest was magnificent, and not steroid use, or pumping iron magnificent. There was a big difference between someone who had worked hard his entire life and someone who spent days at a time in the gym. Each muscle was used and perfected to the maximum extent. And she had been thinking about his ass. If his ass looked half this good when…listen to her, "when", she saw it, she'd be utterly helpless. The aforementioned ass followed Duo into his room to change, while Hilde discreetly watched him go. She could swear that he wore tight pants every time he went anywhere with her. Not that she was complaining. She thought about that for a moment, and laughed a little. She was falling for a baka. And she knew it. And she didn't care.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Heero walked from the locker room into the pool area, usually used strictly for exercise and training, and stared at the water for a moment. He had always enjoyed the sight of water, especially when it was still like this. Undisturbed. Quiet. Serene. He had enough action in his life, he needed to relax sometimes. This was as close as he got.

He walked to the far end of the pool, and was about to jump in, when he saw movement out of the corner of his eye. Without turning his head or even focusing his eyes, he watched Relena come through the door from the women's locker room solely using peripheral vision.

"You're not usually here this early." He said, not letting the irritation he felt at being disturbed during his time of tranquillity penetrate his voice. He knew she came here at regular intervals, and had especially marked out this time so he would not be disturbed. 

"Oh! Heero, I didn't know you were in here!" She hurried over, and stood just close enough so she supposed she would make him uneasy. Her gaze ran over him, taking in as much as she could. She had never seen him this exposed before. On the other hand, he had never seen her this exposed before, either. She smiled, knowing that that was the whole point of this little endeavor. She had purposely selected a fairly skimpy suit for the express purpose of attracting him. It only covered the bare essentials, though it was full backed. She didn't want THAT much to show. It was a deep blue, selected by Hilde. She'd have to remember to thank her again if this worked.

Heero was losing control of his eyes, and they were attempting to look at things he was sorely tempted to look at for a long time. He decided to give in for a moment, and his eyes attacked Relena's seemingly flawless body. The stimulus was having a…disquieting effect on him. He had always been able to control that particular stimulus before, though now it seemed his own brain was ignoring him. And his body was acting on it's own, encouraged by his brain, which was sending signals designed to put him in a state of readiness, and give him, in layman's terms, a "stiffy"

Relena saw him struggling for control, and knew what he was doing. "Are you alright?" She smiled, and he almost lost it.

Heero had to do something. Fast. He thought through the haze clouding his mind, and managed to say, with reasonable control, "Well, we might as well have another lesson today. Come on in." And with that, Heero slowly walked, every muscle rigid, over to the edge, and jumped, headfirst, barely making a splash, into the moderately cold water. 

Relena watched him, and smiled as he jumped in. That was one of three possibilities she had predicted. One was him being in complete control of himself, as always, and the third was something Heero would never allow to happen, in front of her, anyway. She smiled, recalling the scenario she had played out in her mind. She wondered how long he was going to be under there, and jumped in after him.

Heero had let out just enough air to sink to the bottom, and stood there for a while to think. He could stay under with only half the normal payload of air for over five minutes, so he had time. The water had already cooled his body down, and shocked his mind back into submission, though it still seethed. He now realized she had done that on purpose, and was trying to figure out how to counteract it. Sexual attraction was usually easily stifled. Why was this any different? For the first time in his life, his body was disregarding any signal from his mind. He would not stand for this. He needed to do something. Quickly.

He heard a splash, and looked up with one eye. He could see through water as though it were air, and he saw Relena swimming toward him. Great. He sighed mentally, and kicked at the bottom of the pool with one foot, jetting back to the surface, followed by Relena.

His head came above the surface, and he took a normal breath, immediately back into normal rhythm, while Relena came up with a small gasp, and sputtered. 

Relena eyed him. "I assume this is what today's lesson is going to be on?" She was a little indignant, seeing the humor in his eyes. Heero did not seem to have a normal sense of humor, and when he was amused, it usually meant he was plotting something. Heero enjoyed different things than most people, excluding the other pilots. They were all devious as hell. It was beginning to rub off on her.

"Yes. Underwater is the best place to learn to hold your breath and control your heartrate. It comes in useful when aiming a gun. I'll explain the uses of this exercise later. Let's get to work." He then simply sank. 

Relena watched, kind of bewildered. _'How the hell did he do that?'_ she asked herself while she watched the stream of bubbles emanating from his sinking form.

Glad for the won silence, Heero once again stood on the bottom, staring at Relena's floating silhouette. He now had more time to think about his dilemma. Though when he thought about it, he wondered why it was a dilemma. She wanted him, obviously, and it was painfully obvious,_ 'to both of us, now,' _he thought, with a flash of resentment, that he, one part of him in particular, wanted her.

The mind and body were engaged in an internal struggle, and Heero listened as his brain and balls duked it out.

Body---_'What the hell is wrong with you?! There _is_ a HOT BABE, in a BIKINI, in the pool, ALONE with US, TRYING to give me a hard on! What is the freaking hold up?!'_

Mind---_'Shut up! Dammit, I brought you here to IGNORE YOU, and get HER, the hell out of ME! Stop doing this to me, or I'll chop you off!'_

Body---_'You wouldn't dare!'_

Mind---_'Wouldn't I?'_

Body---_'We both know you want her, now get up there AND DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!! You're KILLING me!_

Mind---_'As far as I'm concerned, you're already dead! Now go back to sleep! You're using valuable air!'_

Heero stood by as an impartial third person, the soldier. The soldier couldn't care less what the other two did, as long as he remained dominant. Usually, the mind agreed with him, and he couldn't remember the last time he heard from the body. He thought it was the last time he had to go to the bathroom. The body never complained. The body usually couldn't care less if you chopped it's arm off. Something had awakened it, and the mind seemed to be getting some odd ideas too, as of late. For the three months Relena had been there, those two were constantly bickering, and the soldier stood by and took care of business. Women and sex were not part of business, and while he would allow "fun" he kept it to a minimum. It kept the mind happy, and the genitals dormant. Relena seemed to have a positive effect on both mind and body, yet neither seemed to want the same thing, though they wanted it from the same person. He was the perfect soldier. He did not need distractions right now. He still needed to figure out where those mobile dolls were coming from, and how to deal with them discreetly. Relena would be no help in that, and was therefore of no consequence.

Once again, he heard a splash, and saw Relena swimming toward him. He knew he couldn't tell her to get lost, or both mind and body would rebel. Plus he would drown. Relena came to rest beside him, but had trouble staying where she was. She kept having to almost swim back to the bottom. Heero mentally smacked himself. He hadn't told her how to sink. She was staying down here with her lungs full, which used more air than it saved. He tapped her on the shoulder, and she turned to look at him. He pointed upward, and she nodded. Heero once again kicked at the bottom, and jetted back to the surface. Relena came up a few seconds later, coughing. He shot her an apologetic look, which surprised her.

"Okay. First. Your teacher has forgotten to teach. The way you stay under without having to do anything is you let out just enough air so you sink, but leave enough to sustain yourself for as long as possible underwater. This way, once you are adept at this exercise, your normal oxygen level will drop, and you will need less and less as your body adapts. You will subconsciously lower your own heartrate, conserving the oxygen you do have. This exercise focuses on self control."

Relena nodded, still amazed that he knew every detail about what he did. He could probably name every muscle involved in any specific movement she could make.

"Alright, Heero, let's go. I've got to try this." Heero nodded, and again, simply sank. She watched him, and saw his sinking form reach the bottom. She shook her head, and thought for a moment. An evil grin crossed her face. She then hesitantly drew a deep breath, and blew a little of it out. She WAS sinking. Once she was under, though, she stopped, and blew out more air to sink again. She could see Heero, though he was blurred by the water. Now or never, she though, as she reached the halfway mark, about fifteen seconds after she began to sink, and smiled to herself. She began to feign panic, clawing at the water, though purposely not going anywhere. She had enough time to turn to Heero when she saw a blur come from his direction, on her in an instant. A strong arm encircled her waist, and she could swear she felt G-force as they rocketed toward the surface. One second later, her head was out of the water, and in another two seconds, she was lying flat on her back on the cold tile of the pool room. She kept her eyes closed for a moment, and one hand gripped her shoulder while another sought the pulse in her throat.

She opened her eyes, and saw genuine concern in a pair of blue crystals. She breathed hard for a couple of seconds, not entirely for effect, before sitting up quickly and wrapping her arms around him. He stiffened, but he was not so cold as to push her away in this situation. She could feel the taught muscles in his back under the slick skin, and it felt like warm marble wrapped in silk. 

Heero, very hesitantly, put his arms around her, giving himself the excuse that it was to support her. He was almost shaking, and he didn't know why. This was REALLY driving him crazy. Emotions were surfacing that he didn't know he had. He knew how to induce them in other people, but had only been experiencing them since Jai and Relena arrived. Scratch that. Since he met Relena, years ago. He didn't know how to deal with it then, and he didn't know how to deal with it now.

Relena embraced Heero for a few more moments, before letting him go and standing up slowly. Heero did the same, and mumbled something about continuing this some other time before heading back toward the locker room door. Relena watched him go, very pleased with herself.

Heero walked down the hall toward the elevator, thinking to himself. He held up his fingertips and inspected them. Nothing physically wrong, as far as he could tell. The feel of her bare skin had been burned into them, the same as the rest of the arm he had used to drag her from the pool. The sensation had spread over his chest and neck when she had embraced him. He had heard the old legend, being touched by fire. He shuddered, thinking about the second she had begun struggling, and his heart froze. Thanks to his conditioning, he saw every detail, unlike Relena, who likely only saw a darkish blob to recognize him from…… He had to sleep. There was nothing else for him to do today.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 10

Long chapter this time, people. Couldn't write fast enough. ^_^ Thank you all for the kind reviews, it's helping a lot.

Sorry about that mix up with the chapters. This is the real chapter 11.

Chapter 11

Hilde stood outside Duo's bedroom, waiting. They had both fallen asleep on each other during a movie, and were going out today. He had allowed her the facilities first, and was now out of the shower and changing. She was tempted to open the door and sneak a peek, and knowing him, he probably wouldn't even care. Ah, that took half the fun out of it anyway. At last, Duo opened the door and showed himself, in virtually the same outfit as always. She'd have to check out his closet one of these days.

"Lookin' good, babe! C'mon, or we'll be late!" Duo pretty much dragged Hilde out the door, just in time to pass a very tired looking Heero. He looked like a zombie, a far cry from the usual alert superhuman soldier. 

"What the? Heero, bud, you okay?" Duo jogged up beside him, and matched his pace. "What happened?" 

Heero simply ignored him, and Duo stopped walking, just watching him slowly shuffle into his quarters, leaving the door open behind him. Duo followed him, poking his head around the doorframe to look for Heero. He got there just in time to see Heero's form disappear into the bedroom, once again leaving the door open. Duo walking in after him, and looked through the doorway. Heero was now lying on his bed staring at the ceiling with blank eyes. Duo shook his head. There was only one person in this building who could conceivably make Heero act like this, and only one other who could know how to get him out of it. The former would be Relena, and the latter was Jai. Duo sighed, and walked back out the door, wondering why the hell it wasn't as easy for Heero as it had been for him. For him, realizing he loved Hilde was like…well, it was really simple. For Heero to realize anything of the sort was like fighting an Aries with a cantaloupe. 

Hilde met him outside the quarters. "Well? What happened? How is he?"

"Let's just say that the same thing would have happened to me if I had taken any longer to let you into my life. C'mon. We gotta go get Jai." With a bewildered Hilde in tow, he headed to Jai's rooms.

Jai leaned backward, going into a bridge, her hands flat on the floor. One leg, then the other, arced over her and then both were above her, in a full handstand. She began doing slow pushups, easily keeping her balance. She often used her own generously spacious quarters for her morning exercises, inasmuch as Wufei and Sally both took at least an hour just for meditating, not to mention their actual training. This was much more private, anyway, and she preferred it that way.

A knock on the door interrupted her, and she performed a graceful flip back to her feet, before walking to answer it.

"Well, you're up early. I didn't expect to see YOU until sometime this evening."

For once, Duo was speechless. "Wha…why?"

"How was the circus?"

It hit Duo right then. "It was you! YOU carved up my floor!"

Jai smiled and bowed. "Looks like you had help, though. Good thing too, or you'd still be there."

"Oh..just….Oh, I'll get you for this later. C'mon. Soldier boy is out of commission."

"Who's out of WHAT now? Hey! Get back here!" She watched them both start back toward Heero's quarters. "Shit!" she muttered to herself, before following. Heero's quarters were not far away, so it only took about a minute to get there,

"Why the hell is his door open? He NEVER leaves his door open." They stepped inside, and Jai immediately noticed a second open door. This one to Heero's bedroom, where Duo was already headed. Jai pushed around him, and saw Heero still in the same position he left him in.

Duo was beginning to get creeped out. Heero had his hands locked over his chest, and his legs were completely straight. Right against each other, too. 

"Man, he looks like he's in a coffin. That's just not right. Here. This ought to at least get a reaction out of him." Duo reached for Heero's gun, which he kept in a holster at his hip. Duo then found himself staring down the barrel of that same gun.

So far, Heero's arm was the only thing that had moved, aside from his mouth, which uttered something unintelligible. Jai simply smiled at the little exchange, and Duo's wide eyes.

"Oooookaay. Heero, buddy, you need to cut down on the caffeine. You're getting hyper. Not to mention trigger happy." Duo reached up and slowly pushed the gun away from his face, though he knew better than to try and take it. Heero blinked. He blinked again, and let the gun fall to the floor. His arm just went limp, and dangled over the side of the bed while he continued his intent inspection of the ceiling.

He said an actual word for the first time in twenty minutes. "Out. Now."

Jai looked at Duo and Hilde, and nodded. They nodded back, and left, closing the door behind them.

Jai sat in a bedside chair, and turned to Heero. "Now what's wrong with YOU? You were fine last night. And I've never seen you act like this before. What happened? I smell chlorine, so I'm guessing you were at the pool."

Heero showed no reaction. If anything, he looked more distant. 

"Heero, if you won't give it to me, I'll go in and get it. I don't want to, and I'd rather not have to. Last chance."

Again, no reaction. 'Oh, well. Here goes.' She closed her eyes and, for once, there was no barrier to her. He had been able to repel her any time she had ever tried this before. She was getting more and more worried. Even worse was the first thing she saw. Relena, in the pool, clawing at the water like she was being pulled down. She felt the wrench of emotion that went with the memory, and bit her lip. The memory continued, everything a blur except the mad rush for Relena, wrapping an arm around her waist and rocketing toward the surface, the frantic hope that she hadn't drowned. She continued to watch, as Heero virtually threw her out of the water, them leaping out himself and feeling for a pulse. The blue eyes snapped open, locking onto Heero's, and she embraced him, as he blindly did the same to her.

She'd seen enough, and pulled out of his mind. She looked at him when her vision cleared, and was astonished at what she saw. The expression was still the same, but there was a wetness glittering in the crystal blue eyes. She placed a hand on his, over his chest. 

Part of her was happy that he was this human again, and could experience what she could once more. Their private victory over their teachers, she thought, and smiled bitterly. Another part pitied him that the first emotion he had felt so intensely in so long was this one. 

"Heero. She didn't drown. She's still here. And she still loves you. And we both know good and well that you love her."

"I can't give her what she deserves."

"And just what does she deserve, Heero? To be ignored and rejected? All she wants is you." She was becoming slightly annoyed, now.

Heero turned silent again. 

Jai seethed. He had never done this to her. Not since their days in training, when he had been "programmed". Why were supposedly grown men so colossaly stupid? She sighed, and leaned back, crossing her arms over her chest, staring at him.

"Heero, you almost lost your chance today. Next time you may not be there." She stood up, and prepared to leave. "Think on that. What sense does it make? You both love each other, and at least you know both of you feel the same way. If you don't let her in soon, she'll give up, and be gone. You don't want that." With that, she turned on her heel, and left. 

Heero, now back among the living, sat up, and leaned forward, cupping his face in his hands. There were three cures for these emotions. Booze, booze, and more booze.

Quatre remained in his quarters for the morning, waiting for his afternoon shift with the rest of the pilots. They all had other jobs here at H.Q. to keep them busy during non-combat contingencies. Mostly investigatory work, especially since Hilde gave them the info on the gundamium situation. He for one was dying to test the new upgrades. He thought of the dolls as training dummies. It was better that way.

His mind was invaded once again by thoughts of Jai, annoying yet not entirely unwelcome. He wished he could at least control WHEN he thought about her. He almost hoped this was simply a fixation, but he suspected something else was brewing. He'd saw off both his feet with a nail file before he'd tell that to HER, naturally. 

Once three o clock rolled around, he ceased lounging and headed for the pilot's meeting room. He met up with Trowa in the hallway, and talked with him while the strolled along. They passed Heero's quarters, and then Jai's, and when they were in front of Duo's, they suddenly heard a comparatively small explosion. They both whipped out their guns, expecting an attack of some sort. Instead, they heard rushing water and a loud scream. Jai's door banged open, and Jai, dripping wet, lunged through the doorway, gun drawn and eyes stabbing blue fire.

"WHERE IS HE?!?!?!?!" yelled a seemingly hysterical Jai, as both Quatre and Trowa noticed that her T shirt was no longer opaque, and did little, if anything, to obstruct extreme visibility. Quatre's eyes widened for a moment as he stared, and then quickly looked away as Trowa quietly shook with barely contained laughter. 

"THAT BASTARD!!!! HE BLEW UP MY FUCKING TOILET!!!!" She yelled, as she took off down the hall, intent on murder. Trowa and Quatre watched through eyes blinded by tears.

Duo stood outside a small café he liked to go to for lunch, looking at a small handheld computer with a wide smile on his face. He had ear phones on as well, and had heard Jai's screams. He had planted a small tracking device in her shoe, as well as a small audio transmitter. He watched her position, and it was bearing down on him. His grin widened, anticipating a chase. She must have planted one on him, too. He hopped on his motorcycle, put his helmet on, and roared off.

Jai could not remember the last time she had been so pissed. She had hooked the tracking system into her helmets visor, so she could see exactly where he was at all times. She would simply keep track of him for a while, so she could think of creative ways to kill him. She grinned as she began the process, and sped up. 

She had walked into the bathroom to …..use the facilities, and had taken two steps before the seat blew off the toilet, followed by a pillar of water. Son of a bitch must have flushed an explosive charge down it, or something. She was just glad he had the decency to set it off before she sat down.

She had already reasoned that he must have bugged her bathroom, but nothing had shown any signs of tampering. He was good, she had to admit, and had at least half a working brain, too, to have gotten that far from H.Q. before detonating. Oh, well. He still had to die.

Trowa and Quatre walked into the meeting room, noting the absence of Heero and Duo. Wufei was the only one there, and was already typing. 

"Wufei, have you seen Heero? I have a pretty good idea where Duo is, but Heero's never late."

"No. And where IS that braided baka? I haven't seen him all morning. That's fine by me, but I suspect he's plotting something." Wufei shifted in his seat, turning to face the other two.

"No kidding. I'm pretty sure he blew up Jai's toilet while she was in the immediate vicinity. If she catches him, he'll be lucky if she doesn't staple his lips to his ass." Trowa said, and smiles appeared on the faces of the three pilots, as they envisioned Duo's homecoming. 

"She may not even catch him. Have you SEEN what Duo does when he gets desperate? He can run like all hell when he needs to, and that damn bike of his can probably break the speed of sound." They all looked at Wufei, who smirked. 

All of them, at the same time, decided to go see for themselves. This was too good to miss. A man who could win gold in freestyle fleeing versus a P.O'd female terminator. Quatre and Trowa headed for the parking garage while Wufei shut down his laptop and grabbed his jacket.

Duo watched the little blip on his visor, staying pretty much the same distance from him, though staying with him at all times. Time to have some fun. He slowed down, hoping to bait her into attack. It seemed to work. The blip sped up, homing in on him. His grin broadened as adrenaline flowed. He really had no idea what he'd do once she caught up with him. 

__

'Ah, who cares. I'll think on that when I have to.'

Jai saw the blip on her visor slow, and surged forward. 'He must be stopping. I'll get him now.'

Trowa, Quatre, and Wufei had taken off on their motorcycles, updating each other as they criss-crossed the city, searching for any sign of either Jai or Duo. They had had no luck, as of yet. 

"You see anything, Trowa?"

"Nope. You?"

"Not yet. Keep looking."

"Roger that."

Quatre swerved around another car, increasing his speed. This was fun, he had to admit. The hunt. He grinned devilishly, and contacted Wufei.

"Wufei, you got anything?"

"I think I see that baka Maxwell, but no sign of that murderous onna."

"Alright. Jai should be after him, and if you could find him, she can. I'll call Trowa, you keep on Duo."

"Roger."

Wufei closely trailed Duo, identifiable by his braid trailing behind him, and the solid black motorcycle. Jai's was dark purple, with nondescript lightning bolts on it. Silly onna, having that painted on her bike. The only mark he allowed on any of his belongings was the Chinese symbol for his wife's name, which made more sense than lightning bolts.

He was suddenly passed at high speed by said motorcycle, bearing down on Duo, who accelerated. Wufei kept them in sight, but just barely. One was desperate to kill and the other was desperate to survive, which would make for very interesting viewing later.

__

'Thank you, Maxwell.' He had taken a cue from Duo and mounted a small camera onto his bike's headlight. He'd be watching this for years.

Quatre and Trowa soon caught up with him, and managed to keep a visual lock on the dueling bikes. This was not easy. If they just kept going in a straight line, they'd be in Sanc by nightfall.

Jai and Duo swerved into a parking garage, maybe fifty feet separating them, followed by the trio of thrill seekers. When they entered after Jai, she was going up a ramp, onto the next floor. They followed suit, and saw that Jai had stopped, and was running with her helmet still on.

Jai came to a car, and ripped an envelope off its trunk. She tore it open, and there, inside, was the tracking device she had planted on Duo, along with a note.

__

'You've been had by Duo Maxwell.'

"Fuck fuck fuck fuck FUCK!!!! DAMMIT all to HELL!!! The rest of the pilots decided to abandon the garage, as there was no telling what she would do in her current state. They'd wait back at H.Q. Duo had to come back sometime.

Duo was watching this with a wide grin on his face. He almost hadn't made it. He had managed to gain some distance on Jai before coming here, and had had the note and device ready to plant beforehand. He had whacked it onto the car, and gotten just around the corner, and turned completely sideways to slide under a large truck, turning the motor off immediately.

He listened to Jai's muted curses through the headphones in his helmet, and tried to breathe as quietly as possible. When she finally left, after cursing Duo and whatever children he might have, he dragged his bike out from under the truck, and, careful to steer clear of Jai, rode back to H.Q, the last place she'd look.

Once he got there, he decided to check up on Heero, and headed for his quarters. Whatever had happened almost certainly involved Relena. He had nothing against Relena, but she was starting to screw Heero up. 

He came to Heero's door, and opened it. He was immediately overpowered by the smell of alcohol, and gagged. He called out, 

"Heero? You in here?" He at that time noticed the kitchen counter, which had on it three empty wine bottles, an empty bottle of saki, and two empty bottles of what appeared to be vodka. 

"Oh, Christ." He suddenly had a bad feeling about this. He turned around and came face to face with Heero's gun for the second time that day. 

"Duo. Whad the 'ell are you d'oig 'ere." Duo almost laughed at that, but then noticed he was waving the gun slowly back and forth, along with the rest of him. His eyes were bloodshot, and he looked pale. 

"Jeez, man, how much CAN you drink?" He slowly took the gun from him, and laid him on the couch. Well, he needed help here. Heero's bloodstream was probably about 95 percent Smirnoff, and he had gone from Perfect soldier to possibly having to get his stomach pumped. He may very well be pumping his own stomach into the toilet in about five minutes, to judge from the look of him.

"Duo. Gimme m' gon. M' gon, god…dab it." Heero waved his arm around randomly for a second, before he let it fall. He tried to get up, but only got halfway before falling back and hitting his head on the armrest with a dull thud, followed by a slight groan.

Duo let himself laugh silently for a second, before he decided to tempt fate and call Jai. He tapped into her frequency from Heero's laptop, and let her answer.

"Hello?"

"Hi, Jai."

"DUO?!? What the hell do you want? Better yet, just stay on the line for a sec so I can track you."

"You don't need to track me. I'm back at H.Q., in Heero's room. He's wasted. I'm gonna need your help."

"HEERO'S wasted? Do you know how much he had?"

"Well, he was nice enough to line up all six of the empty booze bottles on the kitchen counter, and all have labels, so let's see…. he had at LEAST three bottles of straight wine, a bottle of saki, and two bottles of vodka. The boy's gotta have a liver the size of a basketball."

"Godammit. All right, I'm on my way. I'll bring Quatre, Trowa and Wufei with me. I saw them following us."

"Yeah, me too. Do that."

"See ya later" Jai said, a sinister undertone in those two point five words that told him to go to Antarctica and never come back. She cut the transmission, and Duo stared at the computer for a second before shrugging and hanging up. He walked back to Heero, who was mumbling something unintelligible, and waving his arms in the air.

He sat down in chair opposite Heero, wondering just what the hell you do with someone this drunk. The guy couldn't even stand, and yesterday you wouldn't have been able to knock him down with a sledgehammer. 

"Heero, bud, you sure do go to the extreme. You get drunk, you don't just get a little sick, you kill as many brain cells as you can without going into a coma." Duo laughed at himself for a moment, which seemed to encourage Heero to make odd noises. Halfway between a groan and a burp.

Duo just sat there and watched Heero wave and mumble until he heard a knock at the door. He suspected he knew who it was, and went to answer it. 

"Why, Jai, such a pleasant surpRISE." His voice raised several octaves as Jai's shoe connected with one of the most valued portions of his body. His hands immediately went to hold this portion, and he leaned against the wall next to the door as one eye twitched and he sat down.

The other three pilots went into mass cringe, hunching up and involuntarily protecting as many body parts as possible. Wufei laughed at him for a moment, but sympathy for a man who had just been bashed in the balls overcame him after a couple of seconds. The three of them half dragged Duo to the chair he had been sitting in, and proceeded to make pained faces at him. 

Jai tried to talk to Heero, but to no avail. He was pretty much incoherent. His answer to almost everything was to ask Duo for his gun back. And whenever his gun was mentioned, he said, "M' gon? Wher m' gon?"

"Well, now we know what fills a good percentage of his subconscious. Even when he doesn't know his name, he wants his gun. How many of those damn things does he have, anyway? I remember I snuck in here and…borrowed…the four I could find, and he came to my door twenty minutes later with another one aimed at my face." Said a recovered Duo.

"I have no idea. It's like they materialize whenever he needs them." Said Trowa, who had never seen Heero without a gun. Even when he had blown up in Wing, and he had been in a coma for a month, he woke up and within a day had somehow managed to procure a gun without leaving Trowa's trailer.

Heero suddenly tensed, and said, "M gonna frow ub. Outta m' way. Jai and Duo helped him into the bathroom, and the other three were then treated to the sounds of barfing, and a shocked "Holy shit!" from Duo.

Duo came out a minute later, wide eyed. 

"I have NEVER seen ANYONE puke that much. It's like he had a fire hose aimed out his mouth."

Quatre and Trowa both smiled, and Wufei's face acquired a look of slight disgust. 

Jai came back out with a stumbling Heero, and laid him back on the couch. She looked at Duo and said

"Baka. Well, there's no need for us all to be here. Just maybe one or two people to help him if he needs to go do THAT, " she said with a nod towards the bathroom, "again. Besides, some of us are supposed to be working." With that, she simply walked out the door, leaving all the pilots staring after her. Even Heero, though his stare was somewhat uneven. 

Duo shrugged. "Who needs work? This is more fun." He grinned 

Quatre, never one to miss out on an unexpected opportunity, got up to leave.

Duo whistled. Quatre turned to him, a smile on his face, but death in his eyes. Duo, never having seen that combination, was a little startled. He cringed slightly, and his eyes widened.

"Did you say something, Duo?"

"No Sir. Not one peep." Duo said, not much humor in his voice, for once.

Satisfied, Quatre turned, and walked out the door.

Duo looked at Wufei. "Did you SEE that? How can you be so nice and let someone know you're going to murder them in the same sentence?"

__

Wufei smirked at him, and, and snorted,


	12. Chapter 12

This is probably confusing, so I'll tell you what happened

This is probably confusing, so I'll tell you what happened. The real chapter 11 is now under the chapter 11. I accidentally posted chapter 10 twice, so before you read this, go back and read chapter 11. You won't be disappointed. ^_^

Chapter 12

Quatre finally had a decent excuse to be alone with Jai. Get to know her better without her really realizing his interest. When the time came, he wanted to know exactly what he was doing. He didn't feel like getting shot down. Though he had to admit, it would be a welcome change from these spineless, brainless, vapid airheads his sisters kept setting him up with. They were either stupid, or too interested in the money that went with him to tolerate for more than the one evening they were entitled to. His sisters wanted to get him married to a nice, fertile young lady with an I.Q. estimated between 12 and 31 to make babies with, and thus produce the next Winner heir.

Stewing in these thoughts, he once again brought Jai to mind. Money was not her concern. She, like the rest of them, would probably be able to live the rest of her life in reasonable comfort with whatever money she had on her, which if she was anything like Heero, was absolutely nothing. Jai was not hard to look at, either. In fact, she was one of the most beautiful women he had ever seen. He wanted her, and that was that. He just needed to gather some intelligence before truly persuing her. He was not one for blind dates, and Jai didn't seem the type, either. They were already friends, but he needed to turn it up a notch. 

He came to the pilot's meeting room, and walked to his desk, which was, through no fault of his own, located directly across from hers. He sat down, and began typing. Before he had even managed to get into the WinnerCorp. Database, he received an instant message.

WinnerKD—Quatre! Long time no see!

WinnerQR—Kellee? I haven't seen you since the Christmas party!

WinnerKD--How have you been?

WinnerQR—Fine. You?

WinnerKD—I'm great. But it is BORING as HELL around here.

WinnerQR—Really? Never a dull moment around here. You remember Heero?

WinnerKD—The one who tried to shoot the one with the braid at the party?

Quatre laughed to himself, earning a quick glance from Jai.

WinnerQR— LOL That's the one. He's drunk and probably throwing up as we speak.

WinnerKD—At 5 o clock in the afternoon? How the hell did he do that?

WinnerQR—I'm not in on the details, but I'm pretty sure it involves Relena.

WinnerKD—RELENA? SHE'S there?

WinnerQR—Oh, yeah. And has been trying to tie herself to Heero since she got here.

WinnerKD—Oh, I have to see this. That guy didn't so much as bat an eye when…what's the name of the one with the braid?

WinnerQR—That's Duo. Recently attached to Hilde.

WinnerKD—Hilde? The one he was with at the party?

WinnerQR—Yup.

WinnerKD—Oh, man, is everybody there attached? Well, Heero didn't even bat an eye when Duo tried to trip him during the dance.

WinnerQR—I remember that. He didn't bat an eye, but he tried to shoot him.

WinnerKD—LOL Pam almost had a heart attack!

Quatre's computer beeped, and he looked up. Jai was looking at him, a slight smile on her face. He smiled back, and read the message.

JJamenson—Who is it? 

WinnerQR—My sister, Kellee Deanna Winner. You'd like her. 

JJamenson—Really? Is she coming here?

WinnerQR—Maybe. She needs a vacation, I can tell. 

Quatre switched back to Kellee, and began typing.

WinnerQR—Well, you want to come here? I know you hate the Winner Corp detail, so let the others do it. 

WinnerKD—I just might. I need some excitement. Plus I need to find you another date. 

WinnerQR—NO you do NOT. 

WinnerKD—YES, I DO. It's my turn. Well, I may be there in a couple of days. See you then! 

WinnerQR—Bye.

"Well? She coming down here?" Jai asked, still smiling slightly.

"Yeah. In a couple of days. Hey, what's the deal with your screen name? J Jamenson?"

Jai grinned at him.

"Haven't you ever heard of Janai Jamenson?"

Quatre gaped incredulously. Janai Jamenson was the ever-elusive president of ComCor, one of his only serious rivals in business.

"YOU'RE Janai Jamenson? Of ComCor International?"

"Yup. I knew who you were long before I met you. Your company's a bitch to negotiate with, you know that?"

"Yeah. The Winner sisters are notoriously tough. Not to mention stubborn. You'll get a personal understanding of that once Kellee gets here." 

"I'll bet."

"I'm not kidding about the tough part, either. Kellee voluntarily underwent all the same training I did. Including piloting. She just felt like it, and no one ever denied her much of anything. Don't get me wrong, she's not a snob. And she's also the closest of my sisters."

"Hm. This could be interesting. Is it just me, or is almost everyone in this building, preventer or not, trained in some sort of lethal art? Hilde is almost as good as Duo in a mobile suit, AND a natural deadeye, Sally too, Zechs, Noin, and Relena's learning, all of you pilots, Catherine is just as good with a gun as she is with knives, and now Kellee."

Quatre laughed, and shrugged. "Actually, she might even try to become a preventer. That is NOT something I want her to do, but hey, not like I can do anything about it. She still considers me her "little" brother. I'm only a year younger than she is."

"She's lucky. Heero and I are on pretty much the same authority wavelength. We're twins, and neither of us has any idea who came first, so neither of us exactly has seniority. I want him to do something, he'll do it, but only because I'm his sister. Not because I'm his commanding officer or something."

Quatre had a vivid vision of Heero saluting Jai, and tried to hold back another cough of laughter.

They continued on this vein for about an hour, until Duo entered.

"Well, Heero's slept a while, and now at least he's coherent. He's still kinda goofy, but he felt well enough to grab his gun out of my back pocket and aim it at anyone who came near him. I managed to get out the door and get down here. He's holding up Trowa and Wufei right now."

"WHAT?" exclaimed Jai and Quatre at the same time, before jumping over their respective desks and following Duo down the hall. Once they got to Heero's quarters, they slowly opened the door, all instinctively knowing not to draw their guns. Heero would shoot them. 

Wufei, his hands in the air, looked at them after they came in, and glared at Duo.

"Maxwell! You have NO honor! How could you give him the gun, and then run and hide in cowardice like some weakling onna with us staring down the barrel?! I swear, I'll kill you MYSELF if we survive this!"

"I didn't GIVE him the goddam gun, alright?!"

"Just shut up and get it away from that crazy baka!"

"That won't be easy. He hasn't even blinked in five minutes. He's VERY intent." Said Trowa, in the same position Wufei was in, hands in the air, staring at Heero, who still had his gun leveled at them.

Jai and Quatre inched their way toward him, while Duo slowly crept up behind him. 

"Don't be stupid, Maxwell! He knows you're there, and even if he doesn't, if you startle him, do you know what's going to happen? HE'S GOING TO SHOOT ME, THAT'S WHAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN!!!!!!! And if he does, I'll take YOU with me with the last breath I take!!" Shouted a now red faced Wufei.

Jai and Quatre tried to stifle laughter as they got closer, trembling slightly. Duo was having no such luck. Snorts were coming from behind the couch, where he was now hiding, trying to mount a sneak attack. Heero showed no sign of awareness, and for all they knew, he had reverted to tunnel vision, focusing all attention on Trowa and Wufei. 

Quatre and Jai telepathically signaled Duo to try to grab Heero. Quatre was to go for the gun, and Jai was to try to knock him backwards onto the couch.

__

'On three. One…Two…THREE!'

Duo sprang up behind Heero, and tried to grab his shoulders. Heero swung a left backhand that barely missed Jai, as she ducked, But Heero purposely let the fist run it's course, and it connected with the side of Duo's head, knocking him over backward immediately. Quatre made a grab for the gun, but Heero moved the gun just enough to get it out of Quatre's reach, and knocked his legs out from under him with a well placed kick. Now Quatre was down.

Jai rolled, getting up a few feet away. There was no way she'd be able to appropriate the gun now. She made a charge at him, hoping to distract him into either dropping it or knocking it from his grasp.

She was suddenly alerted to a slight hissing noise, and leapt to one side. Something clattered against Heero's gun, tearing it away from him. Jai kept her momentum, and turned the charge into a slide, knocking Heero into the couch, and whipping out her gun, aiming it at him.

Heero didn't move. He just sat there, staring straight ahead. Jai got up, still aiming at him, and glanced at the now open doorway. Catherine stood there, leaning against the doorframe, smiling. Jai turned around, back toward the far wall. There, virtually nailed, was Heero's gun, pinned by not one but THREE knives, hanging in between a triangle of steel, captured by the shear guards.

Catherine walked in, watching Trowa and Wufei drop their arms and collapse in the chairs behind them, and smiled.

"Well, what's HIS problem?" she asked, nodding at the still staring Heero.

"His PROBLEM," began a muffled voice from behind the couch, "He's absolutely PLASTERED, THAT'S his PROBLEM." Duo stood up, cradling his face with his hand. "And MY problem, is a possibly fractured JAW." He walked around to everyone else, still talking. "And if you don't mind, keep that baka at bay while I rig this room full of booby traps."

"Nothing doing, Duo. Go get an ice pack, that looks painful." Said Jai, referring to the ugly bruise on the left side of Duo's face.

Duo stalked out of the room, slamming the door behind him. Jai watched him, and shook her head. She held out a hand for Quatre, who had wisely chosen not to get back up after Heero tossed him to the floor.

"Thanks." He took her hand, and she helped him up. "Nice shot, by the way, Catherine. That was better than the show."

"Thanks. Now, will someone please fill me in? What the hell is going on? And why was Heero aiming his gun at Trowa and Wufei?" All five turned to face a strange noise, and realized that Heero had lied down on the couch and was asleep again, snoring.

Duo grumbled to himself as he walked to the infirmary. He really had not expected to be the one to be hit first. He thought Quatre would have fit the bill nicely for First One Punched. Instead, he got backhanded right below the temple, and his jaw hurt like hell. He walked in, and had learned the layout of the medical area quite well. He was here often, naturally. He opened the mini-fridge he knew so well, and grabbed his best friend, Mr. Ice Pack. He held it to his face and started toward his quarters. He might just try to hack into the building's power grid, and turn off the power to Heero's room. But more likely was he would fall asleep laying on the couch and wake up with the left half of his face numb.

Just before he slid his keycard to unlock the door, he heard someone calling him. He turned around to see Hilde jogging toward him. 

"I heard you had another run in with Heero. What'd you do this time?"

"What did I do? What did "I" do? That crazy bastard got himself totally wasted over something that happened with Relena, and puked his guts up. THEN, while me, Trowa and Wufei were watching him, he swiped his gun out of my back pocket while we thought he was sleeping. I ran for the door before Trowa and Wufei knew what was happening, and they got up and tried to follow me. He got up and aimed the damn thing at them, and they, thankfully, did not move. I went to Quatre and Jai, who were ALONE, in the pilot's room," he followed that with an elaborate wink, "and ran back. When we got back, all three of them were in the exact same pose, and we tried to relieve him of his weapon. He tried to backhand Jai, and failing that, he backhanded ME." 

He lifted the ice pack, showing off the nasty mark on his face, and Hilde whistled. "Then, he knocked Quatre down, and Cathy decided to pay us a visit. She threw THREE knives at Heero's gun, pinning it to the far wall. Jai knocked him onto the couch, and pointed her gun at him. I got up, and went to get this." He tossed the ice pack in the air, caught it, and slapped it back on his face. "And was just thinking on how to get Heero for this. I was thinking about cutting his power. Possibly setting a stink bomb."

"Damn. Busy day, huh?" 

"Ohhh, wait, I almost forgot to mention. I may never be able to speak in a normal tone again, as Jai's shoe dramatically reduced my testosterone output."

It took Hilde a second to realize what he meant, but then she burst out laughing. She leaned against the wall, and covered her mouth with her hand, as she howled,

Duo had to admit, had it happened to someone else, it would have been hysterical. But when HE got kicked in the nuts, the situation suddenly lost any and all humor. He'd be laughing about it tomorrow, of course, when he was once again able to think back on it without cringing and involuntarily holding himself.

Once Hilde managed to calm herself down, she thought back to what he had said about Quatre and Jai.

"Well, how's Quatre doing with Jai? You said they were alone together."

"Oh, yeah. Jai left all of us to take care of Heero, and went to do her report. Quatre followed, and I whistled at him. He gave me this goddam AWFUL look, and went after her. I didn't know it was possible, but that was creepier than a death glare. It was like he was going to kill me and enjoy doing it. At least with Heero all it does is let you know he's pissed. Anyway, when I got there to tell them about soldier boy, they were both just sitting there talking. The life of a businessman." He laughed. "Had been for quite some time, too."

"Hmm. There's hope for them yet, then. Quatre hasn't lost his nerve. Good thing, too."

"Now, what do you say we go in, and watch some TV while I kill some nerve endings with this?" He tossed the ice pack in the air, and caught it again.

Hilde grinned at him. He put his free arm over her shoulders, and walked in.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Wufei was not happy. That baka Maxwell had almost killed him. Most things were forgiven a drunken pilot, so Wufei decided the blame lay on Duo. That wallop upside Duo's head helped his mood, but not by much. Plus, he did not care to have been saved by a women, much less one who worked in a circus. At least Trowa was a pilot, and had used the circus as cover, he could be forgiven that. But being saved by knife throwing female side show was simply injustice. There was no other word for it. Pretty much the best thing that had happened to him today was seeing that idiot Duo get punched, and it would have been so much more satisfying if Duo's face had been on the receiving end of HIS fist. 

He continued down to the cafeteria to get some food. He'd been held up most of the morning with these immature bakas, and he needed to charge the generator. Then he would go meditate in the atrium, which was on the roof. There were actual largish trees up there, and a lot of aesthetically pleasing greenery. The sunset would help him work the knots in his muscles out, too, which would be in about…he looked at his watch.._"Two hours." _

He got down to the cafeteria, which operated more as a small restaurant than as simply an eating hall. He ordered his dinner, and brought it up to the roof with him in a couple of small take out boxes. He sat down at a low table near the railing and under a tree, and laid his dinner out along with a thermos full of tea. 

__

'Ah…peace.' 

He had peace for about an hour while he ate and watched the sun descend. Sunsets were so uniquely..Earth. You could never see one in space or in a colony. And each one was different. There were not many things you could say that about. He sipped at his tea, and took the last bite of his dinner while he watched. He heard someone coming up behind him, and knew instinctively who it was.

"What brings you here, onna?"

"My NAME is SALLY, Wufei." Came an exasperated voice from behind him, and he almost smiled. "Say it. Just once."

"Onna. If you're not going to leave, sit down. Now, once again, what do you want?"

Sally sighed, and rolled her eyes. "Oh, well. Here goes. Duo came into the clinic earlier to get an ice pack, he had a nasty bruise on his temple. Why do I think YOU had something to do with it?"

"Because I did, onna. Though not the something you thought I did. Yuy is profoundly drunk, and Maxwell had his gun. He virtually handed it to Yuy, and that weakling baka took off like a frightened doe. We attempted to follow, logically, but he set his sights on us. That braided baka came back eventually, with the other Yuy, and they managed to disarm her brother with the help of that onna from the circus. Before they did, however, the drunken idiot landed a beautiful backhand on Maxwell." 

Sally stared at him. "HEERO. Is drunk. That just HAS to involve Relena."

"I had more respect for him. Reverting to narcotics over a woman." He sipped his tea again, and stared at the horizon. 

Sally stared at him incredulously. "Well, not ALL of us are lacking emotions, Wufei." Every word dripping with sarcasm.

"Emotions are weak. A strong man is not ruled by his emotions." Another sip of tea.

Sally rolled her eyes again, wondering if he actually truly BELIEVED that.

"Justice was served today, and Maxwell deserved what he received."

"Wufei, do you have ANY compassion? ANY??"

"Of course. The Yuy onna struck Maxwell in a…manly area when we first arrived, and while I did laugh at him, I helped him to where he could sit down and not collapse indignantly on the floor in pain."

Sally processed this. "Let me get this straight. Jai….struck…Duo in the balls, and you laughed at him?"

"What are you getting at, onna?" He asked, taking another sip of tea.

"Oh, never mind. What are you up here for?"

"Some peace and quiet. This day has been one surprise after another. Quite inconvenient. I just brought some food and tea," he held up the thermos, "and was going to meditate for a while. Care to watch with me, onna?" 

He got up and walked about fifteen feet away, sitting in a full lotus on the grass, still watching the sun, which was now bathing them both in shades of pink light. Sally walked over with him, and sat down a few feet away. 

"Wufei, I didn't know you liked sunsets."

"What are you implying, woman?"

"Nothing." She said in exasperation. "You're just not the sunset type."

"And who IS this "Sunset Type"?"

"Well,…Quatre, for one."

"Don't go comparing ME to that baka. HE's shamelessly persuing the Yuy onna."

"Really?"

Wufei didn't answer. He simply closed his eyes and began to meditate. Sally took that as what he intended to be the end of the conversation, and watched to sky glow red until shadows overtook the city. She then got up and went in, knowing that, left to his own devices, Wufei would stay here as long as it took until she left, and THEN and ONLY then, he would get up himself. She hurried down the stairs, to the elevator, and rode down to the living quarters, reflecting on the fact that Wufei, despite being…Wufei, was actually polite to her this time.

Noin stared at the computer panel, typing. She had been monitoring some somewhat suspicious activity in an area Heero had specified some weeks earlier as a danger point. She had assigned several different people to surveillance, as well as herself. AH!….There it was! They were mobilizing another squad! Noin knew as well as anyone else that dolls were no match for the pilots, especially after the new upgrades Jai had put into them. She had to wonder what they were up to, sending dolls to Earth time after time, only to have them destroyed and sold back to them as raw materials. It made no sense. 

She smiled as she walked to the intercom to announce the news. They had respectfully requested, and Lady Une had granted, that all six gundam pilots be known publicly as Unit Terra.

"Unit Terra, report to the suit hangar, on the double! This is not a drill!" She hurried out the door, heading for the area herself. She didn't want to be the last one there!

All pilots converged on the suit hangar, not five minutes after the announcement was made. Noin had managed to be there second, about ten seconds after an ecstatic and bruised Duo. The others arrived at the same time, give or take five seconds, all eager to test some gundams. Especially normally quiet Heero, whose eyes were gleaming with the rest of them. (Nothing like your purpose in life to snap you out of a hangover) The early morning sun had maybe done something?

Noin took the floor. "I'll be brief. I can see you're all anxious. Another, much larger squadron of gundamium mobile dolls is bearing down on us, a fourth again as large as the one you fought last time. That should be all you need to know. Preventers, scramble!" 

All six pilots rushed for their suits, snatching the ripcords and launching upward simultaneously. Noin watched them, slight envy tugging at her. Those six were all that were really needed. She and Milliardo were no longer instrumental roles in anything except being commanders.

Duo leapt into his suit, powering up all systems and closing the cockpit. He chuckled with evil laughter. His first day as the TRUE god of death! Invisible and inescapable!

"Ohhhh, this is gonna be sweet!"

He launched himself into space with the rest of them, coming to rest ten minutes later in the direct path of the incoming mobile dolls. They waited, exchanging cocky banter back and forth. The anticipated group finally came into sight.

Heero watched the dolls come closer, and as soon as they entered range, He saw the Deathscythe's boosters kick in, and after that, nothing. The suit simply disappeared. They had all felt the shockwave of his rockets igniting, and then

"YEEEEEEEEHAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!" came a voice over the comm, followed immediately by a line of explosions traced across the enemies front lines. Heero had to smile slightly. How long did it take him to get that far? Three seconds? Jai knew her stuff. And he had just destroyed what, ten suits in about five seconds from starting the battle? Heero decided the time had come to test HIS new abilities, and bolted forward. The targeting system kicked in, and beams of energy shot from his suit in all directions as he drew both beam sabers. He understood Duo's rush even more, now. This was…fun, he thought, as he diced through their ranks.

Trowa had seen enough. He advanced on the battle, firing all four beam gatlings at once. As Jai said they would, each energy charge homed in on the closest target. And whatever it hit was completely obliterated. He tried the missiles. Same effect, though much more satisfying. He could fire these as many times as he wanted, he realized, and smiled. He was startled by a large explosion near him, not a result of his missiles. He watched, and the explosion transformed into a gigantic sphere of flame, incinerating a dozen suits. Altron whizzed by, hacking dolls to ribbons as they attempted to avoid the fire, trident, and tail cannon all at once.

"Nataku is REBORN!" Quatre heard over the comm as the others whizzed into battle. As he suspected, Starfire had surprises of it's own. The wrist blades were now almost as long as the beam sabers Wing Zero possessed. He fired one of the concussion charges at a group of dolls, and kicked in the thrusters. A VERY satisfying sound, almost like thunder, crushed the dolls, leaving them in glittering pieces. He hurled the left heat shotel, and attacked with the right, all the while watching the glowing red blade sweep across the battlefield, slicing the dolls in half, at times. The blade returned to his suit's hand, and he fired several more concussion charges. 

The battle continued, all the while Duo cackling maniacally over the comm, and all the others let out yells of exultation. The battle was over far too quickly, and Duo finally reappeared, floating upside down in front of Wing Zero. 

"Hiya! Race you back!" he called, and disappeared again, though they felt the aftershock of his thrusters as he rocketed back to H.Q. The only evidence of a battle was the charred and broken remains of over three hundred mobile dolls, floating in space with the occasionally still burning giant fireball.

A young cadet, 16 years old, watched the battle in a different light. Lightly built, with short black hair allowed to dangle slightly past his ears, his features were sharp, and well defined. He was virtually a squire to the rest of the commanders and lieutenants, and while he resented it, he did his best. He had to keep his cover. He watched from several feet behind the three Peacecrafts, Lady Une, the Shiebecker girl, and Catherine while they watched the gundams annihilate the dolls. A small smile, the kind that anyone watching would have thought almost shy at being at the presence of highborns and high ranking commanders, lifted the corners of his mouth. He turned to go back to his duties. No one seemed to notice him, and that was why he was chosen and trained for this infiltration mission. No one would suspect a 16-year-old Preventer in training of anything, especially when there were dozens of others almost exactly like him in this building. The only difference was that he was more helpful than they, more eager to please. If they wished it, he brought their meals to them, and that was exactly what he did for Relena. She had seen nothing strange about an apparently awestruck and shy young boy taking it upon himself to bring her dinner. He grinned to himself, thanking whatever gods that smiled on such as he for his genius.

"Segev, please gather the mechanics at the suit hangar. The gundams will need refueling."

Segev turned back to Lady Une, saluted, and swept her a bow before hurrying out of the room. He did as he was told, and had the required mechanics grouped in the hangar by the time the pilots arrived. They landed, and positioned their gundams, once again taking no notice of the young cadet. His orders were to either destroy or steal the gundams. Naturally, the reward for the actual gundams would be greater, so that was what he intended to do. As of yet, he did not know how. Fortunately, he had quite some time to try. Being in the favor of the Princess of Sanc would help as well, and he had plans for her. His duties done for several hours, he went back to his rooms. They were much smaller and far less luxurious than those occupied on the next floor, but they suited his needs. One such need was water, and another was _ros'salath._ Ros'salath was a synthetically grown herb engineered by the biological department of the organization he was sent here by. The leaves were dried, and then crushed into a fine brown powder. The result was not unlike an adrenaline shot, though it was not triggered by fear and lasted twelve to fifteen hours per dose, which was a pinch in a glass of water or sprinkled on food. It dissolved instantly, and once ingested, took effect instantly as well. The effects were hightened sense of smell, sight, hearing, touch, and reflexes surpassed only by the gundam pilots. There was a downside, however. It was highly addictive, and if one did not know in what amounts to use it, it would either make you very ill, or kill you. On the other side of the spectrum, once addicted, you were enslaved. Stopping the dosage meant death. Not in SOME cases, but in ALL cases. The body became so dependent, it would completely shut itself down, one system after the other. 

He himself was addicted, but he not only had the supply, it would last him years, properly dosed. He also knew exactly what amounts he needed. He needed to be VERY careful during this mission, for if he were caught, he would be detained, if not killed, and only several days into withdrawal, he would die for lack of Ros'salath. He had been addicted for over three years, and one needed only two or three moderate doses to become addicted. He still remembered his own horror at realizing he had been tricked into addiction, for the drug could be anywhere. Food, water, wine, the only thing safe to eat was fruit, but only when it was still whole and was peeled before being eaten. 

He poured himself a glass of water. He sat down in front of his small table, and drew a small velvet pouch from his pocket. He undid the knot at the top, drew out a pinch between his fingers, and dropped it into the water. He swirled the clear liquid for a moment, and took two long swallows. He leaned back, and closed his eyes as he felt the fluid power flow through him. It melted the tension he felt after only a couple of hours since the last dose, and he savored the feeling before downing the rest of the glass. He opened his eyes, and the world appeared sharper, brighter. He smiled again in anticipation, and leaned back to think on his methods.

Relena had gone to her rooms after making sure the pilots, especially Heero, would be coming back safe. She had the utmost confidence in all of their abilities, but it was still draining to watch them fight, knowing they could be killed. 

A knock sounded, and she answered it. 

Young Segev stood there, only slightly shorter than her, a tray with him, on which was a neat meal, and a cup of steaming tea. 

"Why, thank you, Segev. You really don't have to do this kind of thing for me."

"It is my pleasure, Miss Peacecraft. I only thought you might like lunch."

"Well, I am rather thirsty. Again, thank you for your consideration." Segev set the tray on the nearby table, and Relena took the teacup from it. She took a small sip, and, to her surprise, it tasted nothing like the watery tea they served in the cafeteria.

"Segev, what is this? It's very good."

Segev blushed slightly, and shrugged. "Thank you, Miss Peacecraft. It's my own blend. I'm very glad it's to your liking."

Relena took another sip, and let the hot liquid flow down her throat. She closed her eyes for a moment, and savored it. Segev took his leave, and Relena thought back to Heero. She found herself leaning toward thoughts thought all too often about him, and flushed a little.

Segev took his leave, and chuckled to himself. He had started her down the path. The early doses awakened a strong yearning for the opposite sex, and if he were careful, and timed it right, he could associate those feelings with HIM, not the tea or food. He would let her go until tomorrow with no more Ros'salath. She would have effects not dissimilar to a mild hangover, and there would be Segev, ready to make her feel better with a nice breakfast and his pleasant person. Eventually, these effects would heighten, becoming more severe as her body became more dependent on the drug, and she would be in slight delusion. He would then have a willing pawn who would help him obtain the gundams and once he was gone, sicken and slowly die for lack of Ros'salath. Heero was the most dangerous pilot, and he would be out of the way as soon as Relena was. He had not missed their slight displays of affection, no matter how discreet they were. Segev grinned to himself once more, and headed to go about his afternoon duties and training.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Meanwhile, The rest of the pilots were in the large office room they used, typing up their reports on what they had seen during the battle. Quatre was detailing the models used when he received a message.

WinnerKD—Hello again, little brother!

WinnerQR—Kellee! How are you?

WinnerKD—Fine. But guess what?

Quatre had just begun to type when he heard the intercom come on, and he looked up.

"Incoming shuttle requesting clearance to land."

Quatre smiled. 

WinnerQR—Always have to make an entrance, don't you?

WinnerKD—Yup. See ya in a couple of minutes.

WinnerQR—See ya.

Quatre stood up, and walked to the door before turning around. 

"Anyone who wants an excuse to ditch the report for a couple of hours, follow me."

As it happened, no one seemed inclined to keep typing. They all met at the docking bay several minutes later, wondering what Quatre knew that they didn't. Heero asked once what they were doing, and Quatre replied with "You'll see." Heero had never enjoyed getting such answers. All it meant is they wanted to see your face when you were surprised.

The bay doors opened, and the shuttle entered. Quatre was surprised how big it was. It was only supposed to be a civilian shuttle. He chalked it up to Lee's adamant attitude that they had more money than ten people could spend in three hundred years, so why not spend it, and calmed down. When the shuttle hatch opened, he and the other five went to greet her…and her companion? Who the hell was THAT? 

"Well, this is my sister, Kellee. But who is THIS?" he asked, looking at her companion. He looked startlingly like Duo, with the same wide grin, and even had the same chestnut, waist long hair, though it was not in a braid.

The man answered his question. "Hi. Names Jase. I'm a friend of Kellee's, and one of the medics appointed by Winner Corp for their employees."

The rest of the pilots were now chattering with Kellee and Quatre, reminiscing about the Christmas party and catching up on things. No one noticed, but Duo and Jase now had their gaze locked on one another. Questioning and suspicious. Jase shook his head, and mouthed "later".

Kellee turned, and motioned toward the back of the shuttle. "You guys wanna see something REALLY cool?" she walked toward the end of the shuttle, and the rest of the pilots looked at each other. They shrugged, and followed.

Kellee hit the switch to open the cargo doors, and hit the lights.

"GAH! Sh..SHIT." came from an astonished Duo at viewing the contents of the cargo bay.

There, crouched in the shuttle, was the most dangerous looking mobile suit he had ever seen. The suit itself looked similar to the gundams, but it looked even more deadly. There were blades curving up from the ends of the feet, longer ones extending from the knees. Shorter ones extending the inside of the wrists, blades that curved outward past the elbow on the outside of the wrists, long blades on the elbows, three blades each made up the shoulder plates, and four long blades curved down the suit's back from each shoulder. The suits head looked like the rest of the gundams, except that it had three more blades on it, extending well past the head, one starting on the forehead and curving backward, over the top, and similar blades on the sides of the head. The hands looked like a cats, each finger was tipped with a ripping claw.

Kellee smiled at their reactions. "Introducing," she began, "the gundam Saberclaw."

Quatre was stunned. "This is YOURS?" he glared at Kellee. "Oh no. NO way. You are NOT doing this to me."

"Doing WHAT to you?" she asked indignantly. "I scored higher on the simulators than YOU did." She reminded him, and he opened his mouth, though said nothing. He threw his hands in the air, silently saying 'Why?'

"And besides….." she broke off as both of her emerald eyes met a single jade one. It mesmerized her for a moment, and managed not to blush as the one visible eyebrow raised. She continued, and the others seemed not to have noticed.

Trowa thought about what had probably just happened. She was beautiful, any idiot could see that. But that on look had speared him. She had the GREENEST eyes….._'Shut UP, Barton. She's Quatre's sister. That would NOT be a good idea.'_ He couldn't help but keep thinking about it, and her, though she was obviously highly skilled in the art of mindless chatter. Something he had never had much use for.

When the rest of the crowd had left, Duo and Jase pretended to follow. They were the last in the group, and after everyone had gone through the door, Duo yanked Jase sideways by the arm and closed it.

"Look, I know we need to talk, but couldn't you have at least tried not to dislocate my shoulder?" Jase said mildly, rubbing the offending joint.

"Who are you, and why do you look like me?" Duo demanded, anger in his violet eyes, very similar to Jase's.

"I was gonna ask you the same thing." Jase answered irritably. 

"Well, what's your story?" Duo asked, leaning against the wall.

"My full name is Jason Andrews. I was born on L2, and was in an orphanage until Oz destroyed it and captured me. I was trained as an OZ soldier, but as can be expected, I hated them all and converted to a double agent as soon as I could. I was trained as a medic, and when the Eve wars were over, I got a job as a Winner physician."

Duo stared, hiding his astonishment. He'd been born on L2 as well, and had a brother, a twin who'd been with him at the orphanage. But he'd been killed. He had to have been. Everyone else was, and the orphanage had been burned down. 

But Jase's height, build, violet eyes and yard long hair suggested otherwise. The look on Jase's face confirmed his own building realization. 

"Well, Jase, we meet again." Their old names would never be used again, they both knew that. The past was best left alone, save the knowledge to both of them that their brother was not dead.

"Yeah. We meet again." Jase said, somewhat uneasily.

Duo had left Jase at his new quarters to get settled. _'What a day. Quatre's sister, ANOTHER gundam, AND my long lost twin brother. And to think, it started out with a nice, simple battle in space.'_

He laughed at this tangled mess of screwed up irony that was his life, and decided to go see what he considered one of the best parts of it. Hilde was by far the most fun part of his life. Not to mention she was the hottest woman he had ever seen. He got a mental erection whenever he looked at her, and it took quite a bit of will power and forced remembrance of unpleasant images not to get a physical one when they were in close proximity.

The problem, and it wasn't really a problem, was that it was extremely difficult to think of unpleasant things while he was in Hilde's company. Not to mention she seemed to enjoy attempting to arouse him. He had no problem with THAT, though. Especially since she was able to do it without trying. But it was getting increasingly difficult to resist sexual impulses. Neither of them had any qualms about making casual references to sex, it was just something else to talk about. But it was turning him to thoughts that could all too likely steer them in a…NEW direction. Whenever she made an advance of some sort, or he did, she drifted a little further away, in his mind, from the teenage girl she had been when he met her. Doubtless she was slightly more sensible than he, and had watched him turn from boy to man. He had simply looked at her the night he had realized that she loved him, and he her, and it hit him that she was no longer a sixteen year old girl, but a twenty one year old woman. He had gotten used to it, for the most part. He had a sudden notion, and grinned. He turned on his heel, heading back for Hilde's quarters. 

__

'Well, Duo old boy, shall we go and be sweet?' he chuckled to himself, wondering about where they should go tonight.

Segev walked to his quarters' window. His rooms had no balcony as the pilot's did, so he contented himself with a simple window. It was less obvious that way. He stood in the sunlight, spreading his arms to it.

"Report"

His only communication with his superiors was through this. It was an untraceable com link, built into his ear, and the wiring had been surgically implanted into arteries throughout his body. It wasn't even wiring, it was fiber optic, making it invisible to any sensors that he would happen to come across. It monitored his life signs and his muscle movement, BUT, it could only do so when he was in some sort of natural light. He was thereby restricted to sunlight, moonlight, or starlight. The comm had no internal power source, and would not alert any sensors or probes that way. Nothing would detect any unusual electrical field coming from him. It was powered by natural light, and did not charge. As soon as he left the direct path of the light source, it would break the link, and any unusual signals emanating from him would halt. The light, and thus power, intakes were inside of his eyes. A blink would only halt power intake for an instant, not enough to break the link.

"I know the layout of the building, and where the gundams are stored. I have a plan, and it will be complete within my time here." He whispered. A sound sensor had been implanted on the inside of a tooth, so he needed only to make the slightest whisper for his contact to hear him.

"You are doing well. I see by the monitor your blood supply has your Ros'salath at the desired level. Good. How goes the supply?"

"Fine. I have enough to content the addiction for another year." What he did not tell him is that he would have had enough for three years, if he did not intend to addict Relena. She was instrumental to his plan, but the dosage had to be higher than normal to chain her to it.

"Good. Remember, Segev, failure is not an option."

He felt the contact break, and reeled for a moment while the power dissipated. In this state, he was momentarily stronger and faster, for the extra energy in his system, but it quickly wore off. His vision cleared, and he regained his equilibrium. He was not a lackey, he reminded himself angrily. Not something to be used and thrown out. He would steal the gundams, yes.….but for _himself._


End file.
